Agriculture in Need of a Paradigm Shift
he still stands
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I was going to post this in the "end of the world" thread where I am quoting "Drifting" but decided to start this thread instead since it was way OT. Drifting makes some good points and I wanted to expand upon them...
As a farmer in my previous life and with my presitigious BS degree in Agri-Business (lol)... I think we need to get the facts straight here.
The conservation reserve program (CRP) was established in 1985 with a goal to (gasp) take 40 to 45 million acres of HIGHLY ERODIBLE LAND out of production. The gov't isn't paying farmers to take "high yielding" land out of production. The effects were to reduce soil erosion and pollution by about 20 tons per acre, improve water quality because of erosion reduction, increased habitat for wildlife, increased farm income (farmers are cash poor) and price stability, AND YES, reduce crop production to get to the first supply/demand balance since the 1930s. When this program was developed there were, and had been, huge stockpiles of commodities for decades and the price was well below parity, so this program was essentially a cheaper subsidy for the government to make farming a career that actually allowed you to have a decent income. Now with the ethanol debacle and production shortfalls worldwide, we need this land back in production to bring the price of food down and to feed the world (our gov't has no interest in feeding the world though). The government is allowing farmers to take CRP land back out before the 10 year period is up, and many (including my family farm) have done so.
I'm a proponent of farmers because 1) I know how good these people are (i.e. helping the neighbors when in need) 2) they are stewards of the land and are the biggest tree huggers you'll ever know 3) I is one.
But I do believe that we need to rethink genetic engineering and the mass production of agriculture. Its time to start using Localvore practices (production and consumption of food within a certain geographic area) for most crops. Why are we exporting and importing food from thousands of miles away, when we can produce most everything we need right here (organically for all you hippies
)? We've seen the consequences of doing so right in our pocketbook. With the price of oil its actually cheaper now to produce on a smaller scale, without the economies of scale of mass production, and not have to transport the food in from South America or Australia or China. Plus we'd use less resources (primarily fossil fuels) expended packaging and transporting local food, support the local economy with more money and jobs in our local communities, its healthier (less processing and preservatives), and if for no other reason, it tastes better!!!
The problem is that Localvore is bad for big business. Input suppliers such as Monsanto would be devastated with little need for genetically modified crops and pesticides. Equipment suppliers such as John Deere would be hurt since agriculture would become a much more labor intensive practice. Grain merchanidisers such as Cargill would be hurt because they would lose their transporting and milling business. Our government would never allow this to happen so we'll continue to see higher subsidies and less trade restrictions, keeping the corporate pocketbook full. There are things that we can do though. Buy locally whenever possible at farmer's markets. When you do buy food from the grocery store do your research and don't buy food that is imported from a different country. Organic food is okay too (I personally don't think it's "better") because it is primarily grown locally.
DriftingByTheStorm wrote:Do you guys understand the ridiculousness of us discussing things like "food shortages" when our government continues to PAY farmers to NOT grow food?
Washington Post: Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm ... and that is just a SMALL example of the fucking games the rich are playing with us.
They buy up all the land, they buy up all the resources, they start geneticaly engineering all kinds of shit to pollute the genome, all the while dumping toxic poisons in to the rivers to create massive problems ... to make drinkable water scarce, to make the public start to panic ...
As a farmer in my previous life and with my presitigious BS degree in Agri-Business (lol)... I think we need to get the facts straight here.
The conservation reserve program (CRP) was established in 1985 with a goal to (gasp) take 40 to 45 million acres of HIGHLY ERODIBLE LAND out of production. The gov't isn't paying farmers to take "high yielding" land out of production. The effects were to reduce soil erosion and pollution by about 20 tons per acre, improve water quality because of erosion reduction, increased habitat for wildlife, increased farm income (farmers are cash poor) and price stability, AND YES, reduce crop production to get to the first supply/demand balance since the 1930s. When this program was developed there were, and had been, huge stockpiles of commodities for decades and the price was well below parity, so this program was essentially a cheaper subsidy for the government to make farming a career that actually allowed you to have a decent income. Now with the ethanol debacle and production shortfalls worldwide, we need this land back in production to bring the price of food down and to feed the world (our gov't has no interest in feeding the world though). The government is allowing farmers to take CRP land back out before the 10 year period is up, and many (including my family farm) have done so.
I'm a proponent of farmers because 1) I know how good these people are (i.e. helping the neighbors when in need) 2) they are stewards of the land and are the biggest tree huggers you'll ever know 3) I is one.
But I do believe that we need to rethink genetic engineering and the mass production of agriculture. Its time to start using Localvore practices (production and consumption of food within a certain geographic area) for most crops. Why are we exporting and importing food from thousands of miles away, when we can produce most everything we need right here (organically for all you hippies
)? We've seen the consequences of doing so right in our pocketbook. With the price of oil its actually cheaper now to produce on a smaller scale, without the economies of scale of mass production, and not have to transport the food in from South America or Australia or China. Plus we'd use less resources (primarily fossil fuels) expended packaging and transporting local food, support the local economy with more money and jobs in our local communities, its healthier (less processing and preservatives), and if for no other reason, it tastes better!!!The problem is that Localvore is bad for big business. Input suppliers such as Monsanto would be devastated with little need for genetically modified crops and pesticides. Equipment suppliers such as John Deere would be hurt since agriculture would become a much more labor intensive practice. Grain merchanidisers such as Cargill would be hurt because they would lose their transporting and milling business. Our government would never allow this to happen so we'll continue to see higher subsidies and less trade restrictions, keeping the corporate pocketbook full. There are things that we can do though. Buy locally whenever possible at farmer's markets. When you do buy food from the grocery store do your research and don't buy food that is imported from a different country. Organic food is okay too (I personally don't think it's "better") because it is primarily grown locally.
Everything not forbidden is compulsory and eveything not compulsory is forbidden. You are free... free to do what the government says you can do.
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