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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

And the comments section shows even more Monsantonistas marching in lockset 
like good little sheople faithly repeating the mantra they've been taught!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>


> As we all know the price of food is rising faster than at any time in 
> recent memory.  We all know the reasons, increasing oil costs cause rising 
> prices in growing, processing, and delivering food, world wide climate 
> change causing droughts in food producing areas, increasing incomes in 
> developing nations changing eating habits, and the criminal act of putting 
> food in our fuel tanks.  Two articles I read this last week, one in Time 
> Magazine, and one at 
> http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/05/paul-collier-re.html, 
> portend a trend that we should be wary of.
>
> Both give accurate reasons for the problem but support the wrong fix. 
> They push for more fertilizer, higher yielding seeds, and more water. 
> Neither advocate better farming using less energy intensive methods.  Both 
> articles push for business as usual and more of the same and neither looks 
> at alternate methods.
>
> Iowa farmers are complaining about the rising costs of fertilizer and 
> Asian Rice farmers are having problems getting fertilizer.  The Iowa 
> farmer was worried that the current high prices he was getting for corn 
> were not sustainable and that when things settled he would be in financial 
> difficulty.  The Vietnam farmer was worried about feeding his family. 
> Fertilizer is made mostly from Natural Gas and is transported long 
> distances so there will be little relief there in the future.
>
> Higher yielding seeds come from research into plant genetics.  Starting 
> with the studies by Mendel on peas and on to genetic manipulation by using 
> viri to transport genes from jellyfish into plants.  Hybridization has 
> reached a peak and leaves whole plant families vulnerable to pathogens. 
> Direct genetic manipulation is fraught with danger and has not lived up to 
> promise except to allow sales of more chemicals.
>
> More water is a real problem in many parts of the world.  Climate change 
> is changing rainfall patterns and population growth and shift is placing 
> heavy strains on existing water supplies.  To increase water to crops is 
> to increase irrigation from deep aquifers and distant surface water, both 
> requiring expensive pumping energy.
>
> The answer is not bigger farms using expensive patented seeds with more 
> chemical and energy inputs.  There are many answers but with the constant 
> noise from the established farming system those methods will have problems 
> getting aired.
>
> Don Bowen      KI6DIU
> http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
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