Of Smoke and Seed

I know people hate it when the grass farmers burn their fields, and, the missus having asthma, I'm not so keen on it either. The smoke creeps down the valley and it just fills the sky with a copperish haze.However, I also understand why they do it, unlike some people here in the Emerald Empire. It's the most efficient method of clearing the stubble from the field and returning the nutrients to the soil. Honestly, I much prefer field burning to them using fertilizer. Our water table isn't all that far down, plus, you take into consideration fert runs into the rivers, it can get even worse.The other thing I think we forget is this valley hasn't always been so free from smoke. Before the white man treked West and put up roots around here, local Indians would burn the valley floor every year, hence the reason there's no old growth timber. By burning the tall grass, they, like the "evil" farmers, were returning the nutrients to the soil to produce next spring's crop of grass for wild game to eat. Some people say it was so the Kalpuya could see their enemies better, but I imagine they realized the potential for game more. For some reason game animals prefer grass and seed to trees. Go figure.So is there a solution? Bailing up straw seems to help some, but there's little profit motive for it, and they'll probably have to resort to fertilizer. Tilling it under returns the stubble back to the earth, but I don't know if it's as effective as burning. And of course, there's always the extremem element in this area that would prefer we hang all farmers unless said farmers grow what they want to eat or smoke.So, no. People will still bitch. That is the nature of people. Fuck 'em or fight 'em, you aren't going to please even 50% of the people 10% of the time.