On Apr 14, 2005, at 5:56 PM, Robert J. Chassell wrote:
Regarding opportunity costs, nowadays, the question in the US should not be whether school lunches use enable the US government to help the military, or subsidize small farmers, or subsidize large agribusinesses.
It should be whether that same money would be better spent by hiring the farmers to become game keepers instead. Instead of farming, the land would be places where wild animals live. Aquafers need not be drained for irrigation west of the 100th meridian.
Part of the problems with aquifers way west is the damming of rivers. The Colorado delta used to flow. Now the river disappears well before it hits the sea. The regular flooding that *used to* happen refilled aquifers and let small pockets of greenery dot the American southwest. Now those areas are running dry.
Ideally we'd see a return to more soil-friendly methods. Some farmers are using these now, letting acreage lie fallow and planting ground cover to keep soil erosion under control. ADM and other massive corporations are looking at GMOs, but there's an entire subculture of hysterical overreaction to them, one that will have to go away before we can really deal with worldwide food problems.
As for game preserves -- you can feed more people with a pound of grain than a pound of meat, and meat preparation (not just feeding; slaughter and cleanup) uses more water than is employed in an entire growing season.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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