Debt Rattle February 25 2015
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Wyland Stanley “J.A. Herzog Pontiac, 17th & Valencia Sts., San Francisco.” 1936 • Yellen Removes Another Obstacle To An Eventual Rate Hike (MarketWatc
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 25 2015]The world has had a food surplus (regardless what the MSM bullshit says) but, Lester Brown signals that is about to end.
Now that is a serious threat; water and food.
Forever wars that even Orwell didn’t foresee…I would agree. It seems that, at this point, there is plenty of food. Being a farmer and in the agriculture industry, I know this well. Too many people don’t have the means to buy what they need. For instance, just look at how many people in America are on food stamps. The number is amazing to me.
Don’t also forget how much grain in this country is grown to feed livestock and gas tanks.
On top of that, birth rates are declining in a lot of places. Need to factor that in too.
Plenty of food but the production is dependent on fossil fuels. To base a food system on a resource that will be practically tapped out by 2100 (or sooner) is sheer folly.
There”s only one way to go, even if it remains to be seen if it will be a ‘solution’: people must again grow their own food, as much as they can. They will have to anyway, as they lose purchasing power. Much better to start now.
Can’t assume that because food at present is grown using oil that food cannot be grown without it. For one thing, yield per acre rises given more human attention, perhaps as much as 8-fold. Obviously, changing food away from oil suddenly would be disruptive. For one thing, mega cities would be more expensive and less viable. So guess what? People would migrate back to the country to be employed growing more yield-per-acre. It’s not crazy when we just moved from the farm to the factory; now that there are no (human) factories it can be reversed just as fast. Compared to paying people to eat but not work, it’s downright sane. —Or sanity-building, to reconnect with farms, life, worth, and process.
Of course the #1 main item on this list is to grow food locally and avoid transporting it. In much of the world this is possible, but not done for other reasons. The other big gain is to use all the 2nds and cast-offs instead of dumping them. This leads down the list to this waste feeding livestock instead of grains and 1st run feedstocks, but that would require smaller farms and smaller scales. After that on the list, mixed-farm husbandry leads to vital manure that keeps the system moving without petrol. Animals are complained of as wasting food by people who don’t personally know farming. They are your vital soil and fertilizer factory. At a small-scale compost can provide, but moving up into 5-100 acres, compost just can’t do it. You must add animals–compost factory specialists–which is unsurprisingly why it was done that way worldwide for 5,000 years ’til now. They are also your machine to eliminate waste and make gains on marginal lands like Texas, high, steep fields, and other niches you and I might not imagine. This also does not broach permaculture, food forests, or considering wild game as your livestock.
There’s a lotta lotta food out there. Reports say 40% in the U.S. (i.e. the west) is wasted. Imagine if you’re cutting the 40% down to size while more intensively cropping, doubling yields and dramatically cutting unemployment while re-creating location and community. Sounds like it might be an opportunity, not a problem.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.