Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Mar 10, 2008, at 8:52 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> This post caught me in a (thankfully) rare flight of pessimism.   I  
> had just
> finished reading an article (http://www.theoildrum.com/node/ 
> 3702#more)  that
> shows how the average yield of grains per hectare has gone from 1  
> 1/4 tons
> (metric) when I was a child to more than 3 tons now of days and it  
> has done this
> by genetic skulduggery and artificial nitrogen fertilizer.

The wrong alarms are being rung. The wrong prescriptions are being  
written. We don't need more food; we need fewer people. We have pushed  
Earth's carrying capacity to diminishing returns. With far fewer  
people there is little or no reason to worry about peak oil, rising  
gas prices, rising food prices, carbon emissions, and many other  
issues. What we need is a global pandemic that kills about three- 
quarters of our species.

Use your nearest small town as an example. If there is a chamber of  
commerce then there are those who push for more population, claiming  
that more people will bring more opportunities, more businesses, yada,  
yada, yada. Is that good? Look at the place that has achieved twice as  
much population. Now keep doubling until you get to the big cities.  
Still think growth is a good idea?

Most of us are being sucked into thinking about what big corporations  
want us to think about. We have a choice.

Edward Abbey said that growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.