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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] A Gene Revolution

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  • From: Matt Cheselka <cheselka AT theriver.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] A Gene Revolution
  • Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 09:02:27 -0700 (MST)

On Tue, 25 May 2004, Marty Kraft wrote:

> At Monsanto, with the crippled wisdom of what will make a profit for
> stockholders next quarter, wishing to find a way to overcome justified
> skepticism for their frankenfoods, seize on the idea of linking their
> product with world hunger. That should quiet the critics down.

Marty, I have a few more comments with respect to this thread, but I
wanted to start by underlining and agreeing with what you've said above.
Hunger is a political issue, not a production issue. The argument that
Monsanto, ADM, and others make about the necessity for boosting yield
certainly fits into that thimble you describe.

Eliot Coleman makes the claim in his book "The New Organic Grower" that
5 acres is more than sufficient land to grow a year's worth of veggies for
200 people. If you run the math on this, in order to feed 6 billion
people, you need 150 million acres -- that's about the area of Arizona and
New Mexico combined. That's a VERY tiny amount of land. Of course this
doesn't take into account crops that need more area, like grains. But
surprize! -- these are the crops that Monsanto et al are usually talking
about. Anyhow, my point is that what you say about these companies trying
to tie the stuff they're doing to some kind of benevolent act is quite
obviously true -- and very sad.

What can be done? Well, wringing one's hands obviously isn't the answer.
All I'm able to do at the moment is grow veggies and sell them at market.
That in and of itself is quite revolutionary, and in a small way puts a
dent into the side of profit-only companies like Monsanto.

More to come....

Matt Cheselka
Cosmic Lettuce





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