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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Used cooking oil vehicles? svo pollution?

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  • From: Harmon Seaver <hseaver@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Used cooking oil vehicles? svo pollution?
  • Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:14:42 -0500

Brooks Miller wrote:
>
> as far as powering row crop production, you will be hard-pressed to defeat
> the biological efficiency of the horse, mule, or oxen team, which negates
> the need for ethanol or biodiesel as agricultural fuel. often draft
> animals, like other livestock, make better use of forage than we ever could
> in production. but without the skills or knowledge of draft power, i think
> SVO is an excellent use of a current waste product, and good car/tractor
> fuel.
>

As I said, draft animals are great, and I'd dearly love to own a team
of horses, and have owned horses in the past but only riding and pack
animals. However, another problem with converting to horse power is that
all those big farms would have to be broken up first. Look to the Amish
to see what sort of field size is compatible with horse farming.
But the main thing that would interfere with a switch to draft
animals for farming is that it is absolutely trivial for a farmer to
grow and make his own fuel for his tractors, and it would take only a
very tiny percentage of his cropland to do it.
The exponentially accelerating price of fossil fuel based fertilizer
and pesticides is a whole different matter, and it is that which will
serve to destroy the current industrial agribusiness. Hopefully.



--
Harmon Seaver




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