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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] we'll have to confront the farm-labor crisis

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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] we'll have to confront the farm-labor crisis
  • Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 22:36:38 -0600


Organic isn't going to do it. What's going to force a lot of people back to
cheaper rural areas and labor jobs is oil and gas continuing to rise out of
reach, with inflation in all the necessities of life. Those rising costs are
going to cut down on the use of fossil fuels, not just for transportation but
for manufacturing fertilizers and pesticides. Fertilizer has already tripled
in the last several months. That shortfall must be met by organics and manual
labor from somewhere or food won't be produced. At least not on a scale to
feed the country. Those forces are obvious now and there's no evidence of
anything to slow or stop the process. It'll literally turn back the clock.

The government can inflate all they want to bail out their big bank cronies,
but nothing can keep oil and gas from getting more expensive, more scarce,
and harder to bring out of the ground. No realistic substitutes for petroleum
and natural gas can prop up our current level of consumption and waste. With
5% of the world's population we use 25% of the world's oil. The evidence for
this is overwhelming and nothing credible has come out to the contrary. I've
read a great deal on all sides of the issue. Those who feel otherwise, fine.
But the process we predicted months and years ago is now underway for all to
see.

The fossil fuel decline and price inflation are not the only forces at work
that affect food production. Global warming - or climate change or whatever
you want to call it - is affecting us. What confuses the picture is these
changes are unpredictable for specific locations, with droughts one place,
floods another place, heat waves and record snow in others. Australia is in a
prolonged drought lowering world wheat production. Our agriculture needs
methods that survive highly unpredictable weather patterns. Most of all it
needs to be under the control of millions of small farmers and gardeners who
can react on the spot and work with friends and neighbors locally to minimize
losses and shortages.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 5/31/2008 at 10:47 PM Liz wrote:

>At 11:25 PM 5/30/2008, you wrote:
>
>>Let me get this straight - we can't even grow our own food?
>In connection with this kind of mindset, a relative and I have been
>arguing politely over whether organic is just a lot of hype. He said
>that if everyone "went organic" it would force the US back to a
>15-20% labor component for agriculture. In his eyes, that was
>automatically bad. It's really hard to overcome the brainwashing
>people have been subjected to. I reminded him that when I was a
>child, there was a large group of retirees who followed the seasons
>up and down the west coast, picking prunes, cherries and citrus as
>the crops ripened, plus high school and college students working on
>weekends and during their vacations. That 15-20% labor component
>looks pretty good when you're a kid needing a minimum-pay job, or
>someone on a pension or Social Security who just wants a bit extra to
>make ends meet.
>
>Liz in SW VA
>http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com
>





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