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IN early September we enjoyed a week in Sardinia and learnt a little about their agriculture.

While it is the second largest island in the Mediterranean, they only have one-and-a-half million people, but for every person they have two sheep. They also have cattle, their own so-called scruffy ones and charolais and limosins. We saw sheep everywhere we went mostly kept up together by dogs, which looked very similar to our yellow labrador. The dogs seemed to stay with the sheep.

Most of the country which we saw was very rocky and not conducive to growing crops. Many people must have been very, very poor before the advent of tourism round the coast and their entry into the EU. We enjoyed the food, the climate and liked the people and the fact that it was only a two-hour flight from Exeter.

Sardinia has a lot of sunshine, very little rain and the Mistral wind, which blows in from the North West across France, can cause problems.

Driving around the British countryside one notices a great lack of cattle, but a huge increase in the horse population, especially approaching towns and cities. Well, we have now joined the club and now have four Irish cobs, grazing a six-acre grassy paddock. They pay better than sheep or cattle, but then people will pay for luxury and we are enjoying watching something different.

I like this quote by Ralph Nader: "The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."

Apparently Asian farmers reported their best ever rice crops in 2006, this in the wake of the Tsunami, which experts had claimed would take the land out of production for a long time, if not for ever, but in those places where the sea quickly disappeared thousands of acres of mineral deficient pastures have been remineralised and are now growing excellent crops. UN surveys reveal that 81 per cent of some 116,000 acres of land damaged by Tsunami overflow in Indonesia, Sri-Lanka, India and Thailand, were cultivable within a few months. Only the land, which remained long-term under water or sediment, has been spoilt.

A thought provoking advert for ocean minerals caught my eye in Acres USA magazine: "For thousands of years topsoil has been eroded by wind, rain and snow and its minerals lost to plants and crops by running into rivers and into the sea. For many years now farmers have been putting back three minerals N P and K to replace the original 90 plus which God put there."

Our next meeting is here at Collacott Farm, Wembworthy Chulmleigh on November 30, at 10am for 10.30am. We will have a bring-and-buy, raffle and bring-and-share lunch. Phone 01769 520504 for details, or Ann Cross on 01398 361212.

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