I think Harris needs to address agriculture. It has a chapter in project 2025, which my DA Book club is reading and discussing next week. I understand that farmers would like to hear themselves discussed, and no one is. I doubt they will be reading Project 2025, but Harris has the opportunity to take the lead on this. I saw a farmer inte…
I think Harris needs to address agriculture. It has a chapter in project 2025, which my DA Book club is reading and discussing next week. I understand that farmers would like to hear themselves discussed, and no one is. I doubt they will be reading Project 2025, but Harris has the opportunity to take the lead on this. I saw a farmer interviewed in a German documentary, who is in Georgia. This was filmed after Harris announced, and he said he is undecided until he hears what each party has to say on farming. I did not hear it discussed at all in the debate. So, he is going to be no further along.
I was thinking that too, but it might be reassuring to farmers, that if Trump loses the Harris and Walz ticket is thinking of them and they are part of the plan to keep our nation secure. I have written this to the White House and the Harris Walz campaign as well. Maybe more people could write to them about it.
Yes, each issue needs to be addressed with clear possible solutions. Could the discussion of each issue , like agriculture, be covered exclusively for a number of days giving the media no other talking points. Then move to the next issue with extensive coverage. Voters want to learn HOW the problems that we all agree on can begin to be solved.
Also, emphasis must be on a Congress that can do the work of finding compromise. The Congress is the where the action happens!!
Great idea - except it seems to me the media make up their OWN talking points. See the coverage of Joe's "dementia" - and the bare mention of trump's insanity. Agriculture's not very exciting - who clicks on farm stock prices? But a pimple on Kamala's nose? Now THAT'S a whole different story. . .
I read today in the Substack What Did Joe Biden Do Today, that a meeting was convened with the Dept. of Agriculture, the EPA and other stakeholders to discuss how to support farmers, ranchers and foresters in using green methods to do their work.
Linda W, beware agriculture as many (most?) "farmers" who have survived financially have done so by becoming corporate level mega-farmers running huge herds of cows often running to the thousands, all in stanchions throughout the day and night. As we drove by a nearby mega-barn my daughter dubbed it's multiple barns "cowschwitz."
It's definitely not "most" farmers. The 2022 Census of Agriculture says that 64% of farms in the U.S. are less than 140 acres in size. And fully two-thirds of all farms earn less than $25,000 per year from sales.
We had some former professionals (at least one finance type, I believe) from Disney's Imagineering who found the sometimes too severe top down rules stifling enough to refer to the former work place as "Mouseschwitz."
On the other hand we had one of our best engineers go there as we downsized after the Cold War ended. He had three young children and he had to take them around to all sorts of amusement parks (not just Disney's), as part of his job evaluating competition and developing new ideas. I couldn't imagine a better post Cold War career when he let us know how his new job was going.
John, since my husband comes from multigenerational farming family in Germany, I have always been interested in what is going on with farming. My mom also comes from multigenerational farming families, although her father was a city dweller, and did not farm. My husband did not find chickens romantic at all since he grew up with 9000 of them and had to help. It was not a corporate farm as the name implies, because it was a family farm. I don't know if they hired help to harvest, but I know that when it comes to harvesting my husband's cousin hires help. He has a big place and people come from Romania to help. Usually it is a family of 3. They live in an apartment that is part of the farm house. What is commonly grown in our area of Germany (that is his and my mom's) are wheat and sugar beets. I have had joy of running my hand through freshly harvested wheat that is warm, and has just come out of the harvester. It feels wonderful like grains of sand do. A former friend's family also grew rapeseed here in Germany. A lot of our friends here in the city I live in, come from farms, so there is a respect for farming and a connection to it.
As a kansas row-crop farm operator, I’ll say not all farming is what you describe. You have to understand that raising animals and growing plants are two types of farm operation. Running a dairy operation not the same as what I do, and to succeed you have to raise what your local market will buy. And I’d bet the number of farm operations in upstate NY that involve “mega barns” is quite a small part of the ag spectrum. I’ve not visited upstate NY, but if you check your state ag department stats you'd discover a thriving viticulture industry, berry and fruit and nut orchards, greenhouse vege growers, and on and on.
Also, farms that are owned by “trusts” are not usually in the “corporate agri-industry” bucket, it is just a family ownership structure. similarly, not all corporations are “big ag” monsters.
In my rural community, I have seen a surprising number of Trump signs in front of farms and farmhouses. I don't get it. Has Trump ever visited a farm? Does he talk about agriculture? I doubt it. It could be an opportunity for Harris, IF they will listen.
Ellen, I am saying this too. Can you please write to her campaign. I did today, and I also wrote the contact email at the White House asking her to articulate agricultural plans.
Harry S Truman : Say, Rose, there's a story going around about me these days. It says that some old party hen is supposed to have cornered Bess at some party, and said, "Mrs. Truman, isn't there anything you can do to get the President to stop using the word 'manure'?" And Bess is supposed to have replied, "It took me forty years to get him to use that word!"
Another version was her asking to get him to use "fertilizer" instead of manure.
You are on my page Linda. I AM a farmer . This is a whole different world..farmers..a world gone -from individual families squeezed out, a whole generation lost numbers of what ‘raising yer own’ entails to Big Ag. And stands for the bigger picture ..perhaps better than any other ‘in essence’ of leveling that playing field.
Patricia, you are then well placed to either ask Harris and Walz to articulate farm policy and to give them advice on this. As I wrote above, I wrote to her today about it, and I think she should hear from more people. I just suggested that if supermarkets are gouging people, they are probably stiffing farmers too. I am married into a German farming family. That is, while my husband does not farm anymore, he did growing up, and his parents did, and his cousins do or did, and aunts and uncles on both sides of the family did. In fact, my mother-in-law went to Farm housewife school at 15 along with her sister, because Germans like to make all things in life a mixture of practice and theory. In any case, at one point, several of nieces and nephews did not want to take over his mother's birth family farm, and so then cousins get asked. In fact, my mother-in-laws family farm, which is one of the farms my daughter has grown up visiting all her life, was on offer to my daughter. But she did not want to farm or be a farm wife. She knows little about it, other than the play aspects, but we asked her. One of her male cousins who had a runty pig as a pet when he was in middle school, was interested. He may get that farm which is just a wonderful place. Another cousin has gone to agriculture school and is taking over the family farm, after doing a practicum year at 2 other farms, and one in Estonia. That is so. he gets exposed to something different than his dad knows. So, when German farmers were driving tractors in protest to some new green energy requirements, it was the news all over the EU, and it changed the timeline for conversion. I was watching a dairy farmer on the news in our area in Germany talking about how he cannot raise his prices much more or the consumers will just not buy milk. Food is heavily subsidized in Germany, and since it is the stuff of life, I am willing to pay the producers well to produce. We know how danger it is when ADM owns all of the farms, and then decides to experiment with our food production, and squeeze everyone out. Given that there is an antimonopoly mood, with Lina Khan at the helm taking on big Tech, perhaps big Ag should be affected too. My mom, who is also German grew up with many relatives having been farmers, and during WWII she and her siblings were sent to live with aunts and uncles on farms for a couple of years to get them out of the cities where the bombs were more likely to kill them. Her favorite aunts and uncles were on farms. So, the family farm is important to the production of food, one of our most important industries. I was discussing yesterday with some friends, that I was surprised to find the my Blue State was asking to lower the age at which children can work, but it was pointed out to me that Illinois is a big farming state so this makes sense.
Yes. And Peter makes a good following point ( climate change) as currently we are struggling in the most severe drought ever hauling water for critters even more encompassing ( I’m a big picture realist) for the wildlife including insects. There are so many connecting points here , thanks and I will write sister Kamala. I have a whole world of sisters 😌 ( and brothers).
We work WITH the government NRCS and local ASCS extensively..they.are.great.
Circular recycling needs a careful ear and focus with waste rampant,by far too many, and hunger is just pure neglect . No rant. Just needs focus. Us who went back to the land are now few but being a farm wife is a compliment, yes hard work, but healthy, challenging, holistic, even spiritual. Learning how to is an every day still humble adventure. One brilliant young lady remarked we were ‘far out’ meaning -to her (we laughed) as she meant ..the distance from McDonalds)!
The Amish and we know several (German heritage ) stand out in application to farmer’s to the inner fiber. Work ethic! Our children don’t want to farm, had enough of that! but they all have great work ethics😉👏.
Circular technology a new term , and innovation is needed . Production here on the farm uses composting extensively, collecting our own water ,passive and some as affordable new solar, it all is sort of old fashion in principle. Landfills need a thorough revision.
The established hierarchy plays ‘us’ ..but a lot of ownership needs ‘admitting’… ONLY WHEN WE ALLOW IT. There’s a certain portion in every society who can’t fend for themselves, they need cared for. The rest need to pick up after themselves , put on their big ‘boy’ pants.
And there’s the continued vigilance needed, always voting, paying attention to who and how those elected represent us.
This election is a critical point ..we here ALL know that..because if we neglect it …it will take far more years to correct than I have and likely my children too.
Patricia, you might like this film I watched last night. This is a family from Belgium who bought an abandoned farm in France, and started developing it as their home and farm. It is in English. https://youtu.be/kMXBQ6DtO4o?si=W1NARVHJuX7gSb5m
My brother-in-law’s brother had a farm that looked like a well-maintained Roman era farm, less than 1 km west of Beaumontois-en-Périgordin the southwest region of the Dordogne Department. We often wished we could have visited in the decade or so before he moved back to New York permanently.
The inspiring family and friends, include his brother, my brother-in-law was really handy. He, his family, and friends having built (with help of friends and family), their lake house, separate office, two small cabins, remote 2-car carport, and dock since the early 70s. My daughter’s family is now the most active in restoring, renovating, and building new, starting with a house built in 1792 and continuously updated before they added a 26 by 36 post and beam barn a few years ago for her goats.
Fascinating to see the family making the farm so much more than just a home, with awe inspiring range of skills and innovation, renovating the buildings and adding solar, etc, through all the unusually heavy rain like we had here in Maine since last year. They seemed to do so much in one year despite the year of so much rain. I watched the whole hour and 15 minutes, without a break.
I’ll make one more point hopefully…not everyone needs to farm. EVERYONE can produce. EVERYONE ,with a few exceptions ,can contribute ,in their own gifted way , to the whole.
Just seeing this Ned. It’s a technical answer - % stuff is data upon data compiled and usually outdated by the time it’s printed . So in general I’d not say inaccurate but far more complicated than any article could present. While shareholders, as it states know it’s high risk the farmers ..actual hands on deck know ..sometimes you win and sometimes you loose and you work twice as hard on the losing years! I’ve heard the stories of farming 10K acres during a drought just as many tears shed as those farming 200 acres . Insuring crops is out of reach for many . And insurance company tend to pay shareholders a lot more than the farm does.
It’s in yer blood or not. And from the mass losses over the last 100/70 years of farmland the kids ( including my own) went to the tech world or sold out .
To grow your own , share, and maybe enough to partner with the local farmers market is , can be done. The larger farms need immigrants to work it (and they are amazing) . And, corporate management, the waste/practices are often not best . There’s definite room for small farms , growing up not acreage ( as in vertical farming) for most crops, and composting techniques for managing our waste better/safely.
I should travel through farm country and learn a thing or two. I have known a few offspring "come to the city" from farming families. I like them. They tend to be intellectually more self-reliant than the city mice like me.
Well, I ve always found a lesson in others , sorta a people watcher, everyone has a gift, and sometimes answers I didn’t even know I was looking for. Enjoy. Listen.
Yes, my mother told me over sixty years ago to be like Abraham Lincoln in being able to learn something from anyone I meet. Unfortunately, the aspiration for humility was an acquired taste requiring a dedicated effort to change for the better.
Excellent point, all the more so against a background of climate change, ecological disaster and the great corporate contribution to long-term desertification. Exhaust the soil, then move on...
I think Harris needs to address agriculture. It has a chapter in project 2025, which my DA Book club is reading and discussing next week. I understand that farmers would like to hear themselves discussed, and no one is. I doubt they will be reading Project 2025, but Harris has the opportunity to take the lead on this. I saw a farmer interviewed in a German documentary, who is in Georgia. This was filmed after Harris announced, and he said he is undecided until he hears what each party has to say on farming. I did not hear it discussed at all in the debate. So, he is going to be no further along.
Maybe better for Governor Walz to address since Minnesota is an agro-state.
I was thinking that too, but it might be reassuring to farmers, that if Trump loses the Harris and Walz ticket is thinking of them and they are part of the plan to keep our nation secure. I have written this to the White House and the Harris Walz campaign as well. Maybe more people could write to them about it.
Especially when you remember what trump's tariffs did to the farming community last time.
Soya bean, anybody?
Trump had to bail them out, though not enough to make up for their losses.
Realize that the family farm and Big Ag have different agendas.
Yes, each issue needs to be addressed with clear possible solutions. Could the discussion of each issue , like agriculture, be covered exclusively for a number of days giving the media no other talking points. Then move to the next issue with extensive coverage. Voters want to learn HOW the problems that we all agree on can begin to be solved.
Also, emphasis must be on a Congress that can do the work of finding compromise. The Congress is the where the action happens!!
"Giving the media no other talking points."
Great idea - except it seems to me the media make up their OWN talking points. See the coverage of Joe's "dementia" - and the bare mention of trump's insanity. Agriculture's not very exciting - who clicks on farm stock prices? But a pimple on Kamala's nose? Now THAT'S a whole different story. . .
Vote blue and get rid of the "do nothing Congressional people"
I read today in the Substack What Did Joe Biden Do Today, that a meeting was convened with the Dept. of Agriculture, the EPA and other stakeholders to discuss how to support farmers, ranchers and foresters in using green methods to do their work.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/09/12/readout-of-white-house-department-of-agriculture-and-environmental-protection-agency-roundtable-on-financing-climate-smart-agriculture/
I am not reading about this elsewhere though. Again, corporate media fails us.
Linda W, beware agriculture as many (most?) "farmers" who have survived financially have done so by becoming corporate level mega-farmers running huge herds of cows often running to the thousands, all in stanchions throughout the day and night. As we drove by a nearby mega-barn my daughter dubbed it's multiple barns "cowschwitz."
It's definitely not "most" farmers. The 2022 Census of Agriculture says that 64% of farms in the U.S. are less than 140 acres in size. And fully two-thirds of all farms earn less than $25,000 per year from sales.
Seems that corporate farms are a small share of farm-land; I am surprised. I may be mis-interpreting these data.
https://acretrader.com/learn/farmland-investing/who-owns-farmland
We had some former professionals (at least one finance type, I believe) from Disney's Imagineering who found the sometimes too severe top down rules stifling enough to refer to the former work place as "Mouseschwitz."
On the other hand we had one of our best engineers go there as we downsized after the Cold War ended. He had three young children and he had to take them around to all sorts of amusement parks (not just Disney's), as part of his job evaluating competition and developing new ideas. I couldn't imagine a better post Cold War career when he let us know how his new job was going.
John, since my husband comes from multigenerational farming family in Germany, I have always been interested in what is going on with farming. My mom also comes from multigenerational farming families, although her father was a city dweller, and did not farm. My husband did not find chickens romantic at all since he grew up with 9000 of them and had to help. It was not a corporate farm as the name implies, because it was a family farm. I don't know if they hired help to harvest, but I know that when it comes to harvesting my husband's cousin hires help. He has a big place and people come from Romania to help. Usually it is a family of 3. They live in an apartment that is part of the farm house. What is commonly grown in our area of Germany (that is his and my mom's) are wheat and sugar beets. I have had joy of running my hand through freshly harvested wheat that is warm, and has just come out of the harvester. It feels wonderful like grains of sand do. A former friend's family also grew rapeseed here in Germany. A lot of our friends here in the city I live in, come from farms, so there is a respect for farming and a connection to it.
That is an awesome adaptation of a murder hole.
that's a pretty brilliant name!
As a kansas row-crop farm operator, I’ll say not all farming is what you describe. You have to understand that raising animals and growing plants are two types of farm operation. Running a dairy operation not the same as what I do, and to succeed you have to raise what your local market will buy. And I’d bet the number of farm operations in upstate NY that involve “mega barns” is quite a small part of the ag spectrum. I’ve not visited upstate NY, but if you check your state ag department stats you'd discover a thriving viticulture industry, berry and fruit and nut orchards, greenhouse vege growers, and on and on.
Also, farms that are owned by “trusts” are not usually in the “corporate agri-industry” bucket, it is just a family ownership structure. similarly, not all corporations are “big ag” monsters.
In my rural community, I have seen a surprising number of Trump signs in front of farms and farmhouses. I don't get it. Has Trump ever visited a farm? Does he talk about agriculture? I doubt it. It could be an opportunity for Harris, IF they will listen.
Ellen, I am saying this too. Can you please write to her campaign. I did today, and I also wrote the contact email at the White House asking her to articulate agricultural plans.
Where do I write?
Here is the White House Contact Email for VP Harris.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/vicepresident/
Here is the Harris campaign email.
https://kamalaharris.com/contact-us/
Either one or both.
Thanks Linda
Perhaps Governor Walz ought to speak to them and let them know they get a better deal with the Democrats.
DJT is a City Boy... His Only Manual Labor Is Swinging A Golf Club!!!
He sure throws a lot of mouth manure though.
Temptation got me this time, inspired by a memory of a quote like the following from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073053/characters/nm0926235
Harry S Truman : Say, Rose, there's a story going around about me these days. It says that some old party hen is supposed to have cornered Bess at some party, and said, "Mrs. Truman, isn't there anything you can do to get the President to stop using the word 'manure'?" And Bess is supposed to have replied, "It took me forty years to get him to use that word!"
Another version was her asking to get him to use "fertilizer" instead of manure.
You are on my page Linda. I AM a farmer . This is a whole different world..farmers..a world gone -from individual families squeezed out, a whole generation lost numbers of what ‘raising yer own’ entails to Big Ag. And stands for the bigger picture ..perhaps better than any other ‘in essence’ of leveling that playing field.
Thank you.
Patricia, you are then well placed to either ask Harris and Walz to articulate farm policy and to give them advice on this. As I wrote above, I wrote to her today about it, and I think she should hear from more people. I just suggested that if supermarkets are gouging people, they are probably stiffing farmers too. I am married into a German farming family. That is, while my husband does not farm anymore, he did growing up, and his parents did, and his cousins do or did, and aunts and uncles on both sides of the family did. In fact, my mother-in-law went to Farm housewife school at 15 along with her sister, because Germans like to make all things in life a mixture of practice and theory. In any case, at one point, several of nieces and nephews did not want to take over his mother's birth family farm, and so then cousins get asked. In fact, my mother-in-laws family farm, which is one of the farms my daughter has grown up visiting all her life, was on offer to my daughter. But she did not want to farm or be a farm wife. She knows little about it, other than the play aspects, but we asked her. One of her male cousins who had a runty pig as a pet when he was in middle school, was interested. He may get that farm which is just a wonderful place. Another cousin has gone to agriculture school and is taking over the family farm, after doing a practicum year at 2 other farms, and one in Estonia. That is so. he gets exposed to something different than his dad knows. So, when German farmers were driving tractors in protest to some new green energy requirements, it was the news all over the EU, and it changed the timeline for conversion. I was watching a dairy farmer on the news in our area in Germany talking about how he cannot raise his prices much more or the consumers will just not buy milk. Food is heavily subsidized in Germany, and since it is the stuff of life, I am willing to pay the producers well to produce. We know how danger it is when ADM owns all of the farms, and then decides to experiment with our food production, and squeeze everyone out. Given that there is an antimonopoly mood, with Lina Khan at the helm taking on big Tech, perhaps big Ag should be affected too. My mom, who is also German grew up with many relatives having been farmers, and during WWII she and her siblings were sent to live with aunts and uncles on farms for a couple of years to get them out of the cities where the bombs were more likely to kill them. Her favorite aunts and uncles were on farms. So, the family farm is important to the production of food, one of our most important industries. I was discussing yesterday with some friends, that I was surprised to find the my Blue State was asking to lower the age at which children can work, but it was pointed out to me that Illinois is a big farming state so this makes sense.
Yes. And Peter makes a good following point ( climate change) as currently we are struggling in the most severe drought ever hauling water for critters even more encompassing ( I’m a big picture realist) for the wildlife including insects. There are so many connecting points here , thanks and I will write sister Kamala. I have a whole world of sisters 😌 ( and brothers).
We work WITH the government NRCS and local ASCS extensively..they.are.great.
Circular recycling needs a careful ear and focus with waste rampant,by far too many, and hunger is just pure neglect . No rant. Just needs focus. Us who went back to the land are now few but being a farm wife is a compliment, yes hard work, but healthy, challenging, holistic, even spiritual. Learning how to is an every day still humble adventure. One brilliant young lady remarked we were ‘far out’ meaning -to her (we laughed) as she meant ..the distance from McDonalds)!
The Amish and we know several (German heritage ) stand out in application to farmer’s to the inner fiber. Work ethic! Our children don’t want to farm, had enough of that! but they all have great work ethics😉👏.
Circular technology a new term , and innovation is needed . Production here on the farm uses composting extensively, collecting our own water ,passive and some as affordable new solar, it all is sort of old fashion in principle. Landfills need a thorough revision.
The established hierarchy plays ‘us’ ..but a lot of ownership needs ‘admitting’… ONLY WHEN WE ALLOW IT. There’s a certain portion in every society who can’t fend for themselves, they need cared for. The rest need to pick up after themselves , put on their big ‘boy’ pants.
And there’s the continued vigilance needed, always voting, paying attention to who and how those elected represent us.
This election is a critical point ..we here ALL know that..because if we neglect it …it will take far more years to correct than I have and likely my children too.
Thanks Linda I’ll write Kamala AND Tim tonight.
💙💙VOTING BLUE WITH YOU LETS STOP THIS COUP💙💙
Patricia, you might like this film I watched last night. This is a family from Belgium who bought an abandoned farm in France, and started developing it as their home and farm. It is in English. https://youtu.be/kMXBQ6DtO4o?si=W1NARVHJuX7gSb5m
My brother-in-law’s brother had a farm that looked like a well-maintained Roman era farm, less than 1 km west of Beaumontois-en-Périgordin the southwest region of the Dordogne Department. We often wished we could have visited in the decade or so before he moved back to New York permanently.
The inspiring family and friends, include his brother, my brother-in-law was really handy. He, his family, and friends having built (with help of friends and family), their lake house, separate office, two small cabins, remote 2-car carport, and dock since the early 70s. My daughter’s family is now the most active in restoring, renovating, and building new, starting with a house built in 1792 and continuously updated before they added a 26 by 36 post and beam barn a few years ago for her goats.
Fascinating to see the family making the farm so much more than just a home, with awe inspiring range of skills and innovation, renovating the buildings and adding solar, etc, through all the unusually heavy rain like we had here in Maine since last year. They seemed to do so much in one year despite the year of so much rain. I watched the whole hour and 15 minutes, without a break.
I’ll make one more point hopefully…not everyone needs to farm. EVERYONE can produce. EVERYONE ,with a few exceptions ,can contribute ,in their own gifted way , to the whole.
Thank you!!
https://acretrader.com/learn/farmland-investing/who-owns-farmland
Are these data accurate or am I getting them wrong?
Just seeing this Ned. It’s a technical answer - % stuff is data upon data compiled and usually outdated by the time it’s printed . So in general I’d not say inaccurate but far more complicated than any article could present. While shareholders, as it states know it’s high risk the farmers ..actual hands on deck know ..sometimes you win and sometimes you loose and you work twice as hard on the losing years! I’ve heard the stories of farming 10K acres during a drought just as many tears shed as those farming 200 acres . Insuring crops is out of reach for many . And insurance company tend to pay shareholders a lot more than the farm does.
It’s in yer blood or not. And from the mass losses over the last 100/70 years of farmland the kids ( including my own) went to the tech world or sold out .
To grow your own , share, and maybe enough to partner with the local farmers market is , can be done. The larger farms need immigrants to work it (and they are amazing) . And, corporate management, the waste/practices are often not best . There’s definite room for small farms , growing up not acreage ( as in vertical farming) for most crops, and composting techniques for managing our waste better/safely.
Few farmers are rich…very few.
My tuition check is in the mail. 😉🤝😊
I should travel through farm country and learn a thing or two. I have known a few offspring "come to the city" from farming families. I like them. They tend to be intellectually more self-reliant than the city mice like me.
Well, I ve always found a lesson in others , sorta a people watcher, everyone has a gift, and sometimes answers I didn’t even know I was looking for. Enjoy. Listen.
Yes, my mother told me over sixty years ago to be like Abraham Lincoln in being able to learn something from anyone I meet. Unfortunately, the aspiration for humility was an acquired taste requiring a dedicated effort to change for the better.
Excellent point, all the more so against a background of climate change, ecological disaster and the great corporate contribution to long-term desertification. Exhaust the soil, then move on...
Yes... That is why the Dark Siths want to Move-2-Mars...