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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: <pbunch@cox.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] The Truth About Vegetarianism
  • Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 4:12:23 -0700

In a world rapidly approaching a population of 9 billion, scale is critical.
I doubt if small agriculture will capable of providing the required resources
for a world mostly made up of urban dwellers. The world recently (2008 if I
recall correctly) passed the point where more than 50% of the total
population lives in cities. I don't think they are going to be going back to
the farm in large numbers and both the logistics and politics of getting them
there would be difficult if not impossible.

I am not willing to write off a high percentage of the population without
making an effort to develop systems that can effectively feed and cloth them.
There are significant challenges but I don't really see an alternative.


---- John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net> wrote:
>
> And good to meet you again too Dieter. I could not agree more. At the
> moment
> the Amazon is burning more to grow tofu than cattle.
> And yes it is all about scale and intensity. Industrial farming will
> destroy
> soil and fertility on the best soil in on average twenty years whatever the
> end product they are producing.
> Old fashioned and varied, mixed agriculture in old China went on for more
> than four thousand years on the same land and ended up with better
> fertility
> than it started with.
> john
>
> > Hi John,
> >
> > Good to hear from you again! What you say about Ireland applies to the
> > South of Portugal and most arid or semi-arid regions of the World too.
> > Much of the land is too poor to sustain farming, it can however be used
> > as
> > grazing land for goats and sheep. The goat and sheep manure is
> > traditionally used to feed the land that can be used for farming.
> > Without
> > that manure the soil has to be fed by synthetic fertilizers.
> >
> > I think Tommy doesn't understand the difference between traditional
> > farming and conventional or industrial farming. Traditional farming has
> > increased and maintained soil fertility in many parts of the World for
> > numerous centuries; while industrial farming has destroyed this same soil
> > fertility within a few short decades only, among other things to produce
> > grains for vegetarians.
> >
> > The problem is not the feedstock in farming; the problem is the way
> > industrial farming works. Industrial farming is destructive no matter
> > whether it is used for producing meat, vegetables or grains. Vegans like
> > to point to the methane gas produced by cows, conveniently forgetting all
> > about the methane gas produced by paddy culture of rice, for example.
> >
> > Dieter Brand
> > Portugal
> >
> >
> > --- On Fri, 6/4/10, John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net> wrote:
> > Sorry to say that where I live in Ireland it is impossible to be a vegan
> > or even a vegetarian and self sufficient both. What grows best here is
> > grass. There are traditional ways to keep farm animals without being
> > cruel
> > or dirty and I can see no other way as long as we are desperately failing
> > to grow climate adapted nut and fruit trees. (we have been working on it
> > for close to 25 years and we probably need another 100 years to succeed)
> > john
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
>
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