On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 1:17 PM, Matt Mahoney <[email protected]>wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 10:27 PM, Logan Streondj <[email protected]> > wrote: > > GMO's and Monsanto terminator seed lock-in's are one of the biggest > driving forces of suicide amongst farmers in third world countries. They > make big claims about yields, but in reality, the yield is usually only a > small percentage, while also being much more expensive than traditional > methods, and destroying the land (with associated chemicals) making it > infertile and inhospitable to life. > http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html > > How is this the fault of technology, as opposed to corporate > misbehavior and corruption? > I don't have a problem with the technology, only the implementation. > You can still buy non-GMO and organic food. There is a market for it > because some people don't trust the technology. But the fact that it > costs more tells me that the technology works. > > Perhaps you aren't aware of the massive subsidies that go into making it cheaper. There aren't any subsidies for organic produce. In fact in America especially there is lots of administrative boundaries, organic sellers and growers get swat teamed, and their crops and produce destroyed. Due the corporate pressure, wishing to destroy competition. Even here in Toronto, Canada, a lady that was growing over 200 native plants, was fined and had her plants forcibly mowed/destroyed. In Russia however, where chemoagribusiness has less foothold, the 3% of agricultural land tended by people at their cottages produces over 50% of the produce. > In any case, technology will be necessary to support a growing > population because most of the arable land is already used to produce > food. Either we can produce food more efficiently or we can keep > cutting down forests. > Exactly food can be produced much more efficiently/densely, with agro-ecology (permaculture forest gardening), http://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20110308_a-hrc-16-49_agroecology_en.pdf monocroping and "war on nature" (tractors chemicals) style agriculture is extremely low-density and high-cost, using up more calories of energy than it produces., Permaculture forest gardening or agro-ecology is about creating a multi-layered eco-system, which maximizes the use of the growing space, and diversity of the plants fruits vegetables, nuts, trees, shrubs etc. Actually improving biodiversity. Of course it's more difficult to harvest a variety of crops, however it is quite implementable with people having their own little farms. Technology is used, but rather than chemicals and GMO the technology for it is AGI and information technology, such as databases of plants, their uses, habit interactions, companions, Such as http://pfaf.org Also important is online sale of seeds, remote working to allow people to live in more rural settings allowing for home forest gardens. Can even create jobs of people that establish agro-ecology, with starter trees, shrubs, herbs, berries of plants that do well in that locality. The main problems are adminitrative, as mega-corporations and agenda-21 "sustainable development" which pressure farms to get bigger and less efficient, while people are forced into smaller areas. One of the main problems is people are aware of "Economies of Scale" but they aren't aware of "Diseconomies of Scale" which happen once a company gets to be over 150 people. It's been found that small scale agriculture and fishing is much more efficient than mega-corporations could hope to achieve. > -- > -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] > > > ------------------------------------------- > AGI > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/5037279-a88c7a6d > Modify Your Subscription: > https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
