Quote:
Originally Posted by SVOboy
I would argue that point, primarily looking at how large your footprint is. Do you really think it's sustainable to have every human subsistence farming? Especially with meat? Mehbe if we had a very small percentage of the humans we currently do...
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Is it sustainable to have every human being vegan and going to university? How many universities would we need to build?!
Will there be any farm land left after all those sprawling campuses pop up?
Obviously everyone can't do the same thing as us(in canada there probably is enough arable land but not globally), and we do provide many of our neighbors with eggs and chicken once in a while so we are producing for others. We are terribly inefficient as producers but totally sustainable too, in 40 of 50 years our little garden and pasture will be in better shape than it is in now, without chemical fertillizers. Farmer Brown in my previous example is going to be more efficient than us because he knows more about chicken farming than us and is more motivated to make things more efficient, he has to make money at it too.
Supporting industrial agriculture even as a vegan isn't really sustainable, Monsanto and their round up ready soybeans are not looking long term at all at what the consequences of messing around with genetics is. Their main goal is to make money now, not provide you with good food to eat, not to help farmers make money, do some reading about what they are doing in India and other developing countries. I imagine they look at the fossil fuel industry as a model for getting society dependent on their product so they can set the price as they wish. Already they prevent farmers from saving seed to use next year... I'm not afraid to say that we have way to many people on the planet right now, and using industrial methods to feed 7 billion more as vegans isn't going to really work out in the long term either, it just delays inevitable.
Subsistence farming done properly has got to be the one of the most sustainable ways to live there is. Hunting and gathering might be better... But so far I'm not a very successful hunter though.
People have lived for far longer farming or hunting with far less effect on the planet that we have had in the last 200-300 yrs. The industrial age has allowed intensive agriculture to provide cheap food for many more people at an environmental cost that probably can't be sustained for the next 100yrs let alone 100,000...
Obviously all of society is not ready to go back into the woods or the fields but those that are should be supported regardless of their dietary choices.
Ian