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So once again I find a very interesting and insightful article about an issue (Chemicals and hormones in our meats) and once again what got me to thinking was the comments that occurred afterwards. Many different people commented on how we needed to just the moo cows and little piggies run free and eat wholesome, free range forage instead of locking them into tiny stalls and force feeding them a slurry of corn, wheat and hormones/chemicals. They essentially said that we needed to back to the old timey way of raising our cattle.
Now whereas I do support the spirit of these ideas, I think that anyone who actually believes that we could return to those old ways and still even have a chance of feeding the Billions of people (Millions here in the US) in the world are woefully unaware of reality. The times when we could feed the masses with free range animules has long since past.
Now don't get me wrong, if you want to feed your family organically then it is a fairly easy thing to do. These days, even people living in apartments in the big cites are learning (relearning) how to grow their own veggies and fruits. Home owners with even the smallest yards are discovering that they can have enough chickens to supply them with eggs and the occasional leg. This is all very small scale though. Even the Professional Organic Farmers simply cannot produce enough food to feed all of the none farmers in the country.
Every year there are more and more people to feed using less and less land. This trend is not going to change until the Zombie Rapture comes. The only chance Suppliers have is to keep up the Industrial Farm approach. This means producing as much beef, pork and poultry as possible as quickly as possible and the only way to do that is to do it factory style. Cram as many animals into a small a space as possible and feed them a cocktail that will make them grow as fast and as fat as possible.
Is this healthy? Hell no! Is it harmful? I'd say 89% chance of Hell Yeah! Is it the only way to even come close to feeding the world as long as we keep pumping out babies. Oh Hell Yeah!
Now I eat organic as much as possible given these tough financial times. During the Spring/Summer/Fall periods I grow my own veggies. As soon as we get extra cash, I am even installing a chicken coop in our very large back yard. Individuals who are willing to work at it can at least supplement the things they buy from the stores, but people who expect farmers and ranchers to feed the whole world the way they did in the old days are delusional.
Billions of people are slowly stretching the world's spaces and resources to the breaking point and dreaming of doing things the way our parents and grandparents did just won't work. As more and more people are born, science will have to come up with more and more ways to produce food to feed them. You can be damned sure that these ways will involve chemicals, drugs and hormones. So unless the world stops eating, this is pretty much your future. It ain't pretty and it ain't healthy but it is reality. If you don't like it, buy local, buy organic and grow your own food. It won't save the world or feed the multitudes, but it can make your life and your little corner of the world a better place.
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| The End! |
Dare I say it? End of Rant
All very commonly assumed arguments, but I don't recall ever seeing any numbers to the 'if it weren't for modern agriculture we would all starve' argument. You alluded to something, though. We can all supplement our own food supply. If you have a balcony, you can grow something. if you have an acre, it's possible, albeit with a lot of effort, to feed yourself. Your variety would go way down, including the amount of protein and grains, but you could live on an acre. It's true we don't all have an acre, but the earth is a vast, vast place and there's only 6 billion of us. We could all fit in the US on 1/3 acre lots, supplement ourselves with a little kitchen garden, and use the rest of the planet for agriculture and timber and bigfoot refuge. Overpopulation is a myth.
ReplyDeleteBest estimates put the amount of livable land per person on the planet at about 2.5 acres assuming everyone and every landmass was divided up equally. That sounds like a lot but it doesn't even begin to take in all of the buildings, industry and infrastructure needed to take care of those people. If you expect every single person to live comfortable lives like most Americans, the amount of land needed is about 10 times that. Now of course if you fully expect everyone to resort back to a simple iron age level of life with no factories, hospitals etc then you're right that we could all live like you describe but no one is ever going to do that. People who cry that overpopulation is a myth see the math, not the reality. The amount of livable space on Momma Earth is finite and way more fragile than people want to think.
ReplyDeletebut let me thank you for reading my blog and commenting. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to reason and understand. I don't pretend to have the answers or hell even some of the questions. All I can offer is my opinion and make absolutely no claims to being right all of the time.
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