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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Population

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Kate Spinner <kespinner@gmail.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Population
  • Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:45:16 -0500

This is an interesting conversation. My thoughts:

I don't think humans are immune to the constraints of carrying capacity no matter how sustainably they farm - or, in the converse train of thought, how creative they get with genetics. Carrying capacity varies around the globe, depending on climate, soil fertility, water resources, environmental health, etc. You'll have a hard time making a farm in the desert without an unsustainable supply of water.

As for common labor producing surplus, that is a good point, and probably applicable now in many places. But as the dust bowl showed us, there are extreme exceptions. As population grows and climate shifts, certain parts of the Earth just might not produce the bounty that they did in the past, no matter how many people are willing to offer their labor.

On Mar 7, 2011, at 11:18 AM, Michael Nevin wrote:

Hi - the more bodies, the more labour there is. And, the sustainable kind of ag espoused so well herein is labour-intensive, more akin to gardening. And one does not have to be too deply into Marxist theories of surplus value to realize that a worker(gardening worker) can produce more than his/her maintenance requires without radically underpaying said worker.
Cheers, Mike in Toronto


From: Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sun, March 6, 2011 3:45:58 PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] Population

The one way to stop "over population" is education.  In every country I have lived or worked in, the higher the educational level, the less children couples have.

I learned in Nigeria that children are "insurance for parents old age".  20% die before age 5. Other children die due to whatever.  A large number of children provides a number of children to provide for the parents in old age.  

Organic, no-till farming will support the population of the earth regardless of how high it goes.

Ken Hargesheimer


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