Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net>]

We have had a disagreement about this before Paul but I think I have 
seen where the difficulty is. I may have to do with the first article 
you sent on today with which I completely agree.

The name of the TED speaker explaining how grazers are essential for the 
sustainability of an environment and the growing and thriving of natural 
vegetation slips my mind right now but I completely agree with the man. 
I doubt very much that a cow on grass with enough space to roam is 
polluting. Made an attempt this summer to determine what lived in and on 
a cow pat and I found a minimum of 15 species of beetle,3 different 
worms and 3 different diptera. A cow pat is not waste but an ecosystem! 
Birds, frogs and newts know where to get their next meal here.

Of course that is not the way modern meat farming is done. A few years 
ago we got saddled with the nitrate directive here that forces a farmer 
to collect all the waste from animals in "slurry" pits where a lot of 
nutrients are off gassed and where a toxic, evil smelling brew is made. 
I think that this year about a dozen people found their death in Ireland 
by "falling" into a slurry tank and "drowning". I think it is highly 
likely that people can loose consciousness by just coming too close to 
an open tank and then drop in. After all, some of the released gasses 
were used in WW1 to wipe out large numbers of soldiers.

I think the real reason farmers were forced to go this way was to get 
rid of the small ones and to aim for more industrial farming. After all, 
a cow bedded down on fresh straw in a stable can be kept clean with a 4 
pronged fork and a wheelbarrow. In a modern, officially approved cow 
stable the cows are restricted in movement and excrement is removed with 
a ram scraper full automatically. Quite a few new born calves have ended 
up in slurry tanks thanks to these automatic scrapers.

Then there are particular periods of the year that a farmer has to empty 
his slurry tanks and for that big machines are necessary. Normally a 
farmer here aims to get the slurry out just before rain because in a dry 
period the evil liquid will blacken and kill all the grass and most soil 
dwellers. This ensures maximum run off into water ways. Of course many 
slurry tanks have a hidden and illegal overflow pipe that ends straight 
in the nearest stream as well.

Once again the bureaucrats in government ensure maximal pollution and 
green house gas production by their stupid regulations and this is the 
real problem. Not meat as such but meat industrially produced is most 
definitely a problem for the environment apart from the fact that it is 
probably rather unhealthy to eat. Free range animals have a beneficial 
omega 3-6 ratio and they are not full of E. coli H17 that is lethal for 
a consumer to name but two things.

John

On 08/12/14 15:00, herb farmer wrote:
>  Thanks to meat, farming emissions set for 80% rise
> http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2653583/thanks_to_meat_farming_emissions_set_for_80_rise.html 
>
>
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