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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Pastoral ideals are getting trampled

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Pastoral ideals are getting trampled
  • Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2006 10:38:05 -0600


That piece I sent on from Business Week turns out to be a not-so-subtle
slap at organic or sustainable growing. Why am I not surprised?

"There simply aren't enough organic cows in the U.S., never mind the
organic grain to feed them, to go around."
-- They don't show the big picture. Enormous corporate factory
feedlots produce most of the beef and dairy in this country, requiring
enormous acreage of grains to feed the cattle, and a lot of water. If they
were eliminated, there'd be plenty of land freed up for more small family
farms to raise grass fed beef and dairy, and we'd still have all the beef
and dairy we really need. We just don't need a constant diet of meat and
milk for health. And we don't need to eat all the synthetic hormones and
antibiotics crammed into the cattle.

"Farming without insecticides, fertilizers, and other aids is tough. ...
Moreover, the yield per acre or per animal often goes down, at least
initially."
-- But as they admit, the number of dairy farms (that's conventional
dairy) has shrunk to 60,000, from 334,000 in 1980. And of course family
farms have been going under for decades. I'd say instead that conventional
farming is tough - tough enough to drive the majority into bankruptcy or
selling out. As for yield going down, how many starting organic farmers
know what they're doing? How many know how to raise production per acre
with healthy soil building?

"The corporate giants have turned a fringe food category into a $14 billion
business. They have brought wider distribution and marketing dollars. They
have imposed better quality controls on a sector once associated with
bug-infested, battered produce rotting in crates at hippie co-ops."
-- Huh? And the corporate middlemen and giant distributors haven't
been poisoning us all this time with conventional food products?

"While Americans may love the idea of natural food, they have come to rely
on the perks of agribusiness. Since the widespread use of synthetic
pesticides began, around the time of World War II, food producers have
reaped remarkable gains. Apples stay red and juicy for weeks. The average
harvested acre of farmland yields 200% more wheat than it did 70 years ago.
Over the past two decades chickens have grown 25% bigger in less time and
on less food. At the same time, the average cow produces 60% more milk,
thanks to innovations in breeding, nutrition, and synthetic hormones."
-- Sure they can squeeze more and more out of an acre or a cow, but
the cost of producing those yields with chemicals has skyrocketed. Again,
witness the decline in family farms, so many can't make a living raising
wheat or dairy. And they don't talk about how much less nutritious are the
wheat, apples, or milk produced with chemicals. But you can play baseball
with some of their tomatoes ...

"It's also worth remembering how inexpensive food is these days. Americans
shell out about 10% of their disposable income on food, about half what
they spent in the first part of the 20th century. Producing a budget-priced
cornucopia of organic food won't be easy."
-- Deceptive because disposable income has risen so much since the
early 20th century. Once food needs are satisfied, people with money don't
keep spending more on food, but spend it on McMansions, RVs, and a thousand
other consumer products. The poorer half spends more than 10% of their
income on food, the richer half far less than 10%. The average is
misleading. And producing "a budget-priced cornucopia of organic food "
assumes we have to keep working for wages and buying food with the money.
Yet growing our own could largely fill our pantries (remember the old
fashioned pantry) and refrigerators (or the old icebox) without shelling
out hardearned dollars.

Business Week doesn't get it.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 10/7/2006 at 1:15 PM TradingPostPaul wrote:

>What's wrong with this picture? Hint: it's from Business Week ...
>
>paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>--------------------------
>
>The Organic Myth
>Pastoral ideals are getting trampled as organic food goes mass market
>October 16, 2006
>http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005001.htm?chan=top+ne
w
>s_top+news+index_top+story







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