Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Or we can see oil as horribly expensive requiring 100's of billion$ for 
military protection of our sources overseas (how did our oil get under 
their sand...) . You raise the issue of what happens when it goes over 
$150 bbl. Why $150 exactly? As oil goes up, costs of industrial ag go up 
in lockstep, has for generations. Good for me - I don't use inputs made 
from it - bad for big ag & food buyers.

But one thing I am sure of, it takes X amount of energy to get Y amount 
of energy from the ground & to the customer, & this ratio has 
skyrocketed since the first oil drilled. After picking the low hanging 
fruit, they now risk billion$ to tap new sources, & the energy cost of 
recovery is still increasing much faster than the increase in pump 
price. At some point, in some places, it costs more energy to get it 
than it will yield once recovered. At that point, production STOPS COLD. 
Drilling, pumping, refining, transporting - stops when every drop is an 
energy & financial loss. And how much reserves are untouched then 
becomes moot. The Hubbert model doesn't account for this. The downside 
is not the bell curve; it's a cliff. The implications are dystopic.

On 3/26/2014 4:27 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
> Industrial farming is sometimes defined as the conversion of oil into 
> food. And it can be seriously inefficient because oil is still very 
> cheap. Often 10 or a hundred or more energy units of oil are needed to 
> produce one energy unit of food. (a one calorie drink takes about 200 
> energy units to produce) And this is counting only from the time the 
> oil is refined and ready for use.
> Biggest disadvantage is that when crude oil prices go over $ 150 per 
> barrel this agriculture comes to a screeching standstill unless food 
> prices can go through the roof.
> John
>
> > Why industrial farming may be the most INefficient farming method
> >
> > Reading this good article 
> > http://www.cornucopia.org/2012/10/only-organics-can-feed-the-hungry-world-heres-why/ 
> > something bothered me. I've thought it over for a very long time, but 
> > just now it hit me.
> >
> > They always stress how modern farming allows one man to farm hundreds 
> > of acres. This is completely false.
> >
> > That claim simply ignores all the workers who manufacture all the 
> > kinds of farm machinery needed, who produce the raw materials that go 
> > into the machinery, who sell or transport machinery or build the 
> > facilities for their manufacture - a very long supply chain. It 
> > ignores the source of fossil fuels that power the monster tractors 
> > and other equipment., or that's used in the manufacture, or that goes 
> > into manufacturing the fertilizer and pesticides used in ever greater 
> > amounts. From drilling to refining to storing and transporting, 
> > hundreds more workers are involved with the energy required. None of 
> > the practices of industrial farming can take place without first the 
> > work of many hundreds of others.
> >
> > I can buy some seeds and hand tools and gather some organic 
> > amendments, take water from a household well, and with my work alone 
> > supply three farmers markets a week for six-eight months, all from 
> > part of the acre I live on. Millions of other people are better able 
> > to do that than I. When all the work and costs are compared this 
> > seems pretty efficient to me.
> >
> > paul, on a line between extreme and exceptional drought areas.
> >
> >
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