Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
We have monoculture - this is the opposite of how life naturally works. Diversity is strength, and diversity is sustainable.
Our current factory farming system is very fragile, and it will fail.
We have to change to a system that BUILDS the soil, and that sinks carbon into the soil. We need to have as many different plants and animals as possible, being raised together. We need to grow all food as close to where it is eaten, as possible. We need to return all nutrient streams back to the soil. Our current sewage system is not sustainable.
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Part of diversity (of humans) is sustaining a large number of them at various levels of health, genetic predisposition, skills, and environment. Returning to less productive means of farming will certainly cause the death of many people. That may be good from a "survival of the fittest" standpoint, but it's not humane and works against diversity.
Current factory farming is a miracle and works wonderfully to produce an unprecedented amount of food. The world is nearing toward practically no starvation, which I'll probably see within my lifetime.
Nothing is sustainable, and the need for eventual adaptation to changing circumstances is assured. It may be that some of your proposed solutions are what is needed, but that comes at the expense of increased labor and energy inputs. We'll need to solve the energy and labor problems first.
There's this romantic idea that a small local farm with a guy gathering produce in his pickup truck is more energy efficient than the huge combines that harvest produce and the large trucks/ships that send it to far reaches of the world, but that simply isn't the case. Enormous machines are more energy efficient than a bunch of smaller, less energy intensive machines. The number of miles the product has to travel is almost irrelevant.
Besides that, who's going to give up fresh produce in the winter? We'll all go back to boiling/canning our fruits and veggies to make it through the 10 months of the year the produce isn't locally available?