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No, realistically such things cannot happen overnight. The soil is terribly depleted in many parts of the world but things will change because they must...and people will starve just as they did last summer.
China and India are running out of water to continue to farm in the industrial manner. The aquifers are drying up.
And...
What do you think will happen when gas hits $20. a gallon and fertilizer prices quadruple? There will be a lot of people looking at organic methods.
How would small scale farming an these aquifiers work without population reduction?
I get the impression that most people, here, have not done very much farming or gardening.
On a well managed small farm, there are lots of ways to reduce water consumption although it takes time to build up the soil. In any case, starvation has always occurred somewhere on the globe due to politics and distribution not global food quantity. As it happens, china is well aware of their diminishing ability to feed themselves. That is why they are quietly buying large tracks of land in Africa.
I general, the situation can only be resolved with planning and forward thinking cooperation. Right now, Americans are gleefully demanding cheap oil for our gas guzzling trucks- this would be our great grandchildren's precious fertilizer.
As far as I can see, U.S. energy and farm policy steals from the future to make us unhealthy, today.
I am saying that small intelligently managed farms are more labor intensive but more productive than factory farms. What does the planet have a lot of?- laborers. A well run small farm is a vision of the ecstasy of life. Factory farms leave dead zones in the ocean, in the land. They rely on a diminishing resource (oil and water) to function.I am still not sure how you could sustain this population on small organic farms? Are you saying people need to die off?
I am saying that small intelligently managed farms are more labor intensive but more productive than factory farms.
What does the planet have a lot of?- laborers. A well run small farm is a vision of the ecstasy of life. Factory farms leave dead zones in the ocean, in the land. They rely on a diminishing resource (oil and water) to function.
Look at the history of man and you will see that most civilizations have been extinguished by over population and environmental degradation. This is not a new story and it does not have to end the usual way. But it may, because we are no smarter or more forward looking than the Easter Islanders
Recall that we subsidize industrial farming. The two types of farms don't even compete on a level playing field. Earl Butts famously said, "Get Big or Get out" and he designed farm policy with that in mind.Do you have any evidence of this? I think they are not nearly as efficient as large scale farms, otherwise it would make no sense for them to exist.
I think I am losing you. I need you to concentrate there, 'hellhound'. We have already been killing them! So-called free-trade policy allowed U.S. farmers to unload subsidized corn on Mexican/ S. American markets. It bankrupted their small farmers so that rural people were forced to move to cities/maquiladoras in search of jobs. Some came across the border in search of jobs in the U.S.:lol: so we wouldn't be killing them, just putting them to work?
[/quote]Easter Islanders died out because of perdue like chicken farms\?
Recall that we subsidize industrial farming. The two types of farms don't even compete on a level playing field. Earl Butts famously said, "Get Big or Get out" and he designed farm policy with that in mind.
Government also subsidizes the water use of large farms. Californians are familiar with the old adage, water flows uphill toward money.
We also tax subsidize the petroleum/ fertilizer that is necessary to factory farming.
What makes a small farm inefficient is not absence of fertility, it is the nature of factories. WalMart's grocery stores don't want to deal with thousands of different suppliers. They want things to be uniform and predictable and large scale. Yeh, so even "organics" are going large scale
I think I am losing you. I need you to concentrate there, 'hellhound'. We have already been killing them! So-called free-trade policy allowed U.S. farmers to unload subsidized corn on Mexican/ S. American markets. It bankrupted their small farmers so that rural people were forced to move to cities/maquiladoras in search of jobs. Some came across the border in search of jobs in the U.S.
Recall that last summer the president of Haiti ( while Haitians fed their kids mud pies!) made the same accusation about agricultural free trade policy resulting in the demise of domestic, non export farming. Ethanol policy plus high oil prices = people starving in many countries.
It is all of a piece.
something like that.
The price of a bushel of U.S. grown corn is about a dollar below the cost of producing it. This is kind of a long story that goes back to the inflation and high food prices of the 70s. Earl Butz wanted to reduce food costs so he urged farmers to "plant fence row to fence row", Consolidate (mono culture) and get big or get out" He dismantled the New Deal system but gave farmers direct payments that subsidized any potential losses from over production. So, over production has been the story ever since with policies designed to find uses for all the excess corn.I am against subsidies, but do not see your point here....
Corporate Farms Get Massive Water Subsidies in CaliforniaLets see the links, I am truly interested in your position, though I need verification....
I think it is true that it is much more expensive to eat healthfully. But the cost of the way things are done, now, is high- Obesity, diabetes, cancer, fish die offs, top soil loss etcI love to BBQ you see, and I love to buy small and local, but I fail to see how this "small and local" could work for people not of means.
I don't know that I can provide links, online. Much of my information comes from reading Michael Pollan's books as well as Jared Diamond ("Collapse"). The movie, "FoodInc." is based on Pollan's research, so I hear...I have not seen it yet but you can watch an excellent trailer here:I don't go to walmart. But I see why the demand is there. you are speaking in generics, I needa da linkas....
I am a libertarian conservative, who is sympathetic to your position. I am open to facts and discussion.... lets keep it that way. The Good Reverend has Gameness either way. :thumbs:
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