Hello Kenny, If this is addressed to me, I certainly do know that this is being considered. And there are good scientific reasons for it, as DDT is relatively safe for humans and does kill Malaria-carrying mosquitoes (although resistance of some mosquitoes is a problem). There obviously needs to be a considered trade-off between the ability of DDT to stop the spread of Malaria, and the damage it causes because it accumulates in the food chain, causing fatalities and decline in predatory bird species due to thinning of egg shells, and whether the loss of these birds might impact with more vermin species causing problems later on, etc. etc. I have no problem with a decision being made one way or the other, as long as people decide that the benefit is worth the negative aspects. Regarding the return on investment for farmers, I do not believe that this has anything to do with whether they are considered businessmen or not. It is to do with supply and demand. People want to eat the same amount regardless of whether there is an excess of supply or a shortage. If there is too much grain produced (or beef or whatever), no more will be sold, and prices will fall, and returns will be negative. Desmond O'Rourke has already demonstrated that this is also true for the US apple crop, and that if the crop is greater than x boxes, prices begin to fall, and that if it is greater than xx boxes, that prices fall so much, that even the extra amount sold does not make up for the lower prices, and that total money returns to the industry fall. Unfortunately for farmers, they were led to believe that the only way to survive was to produce more, and make more money. The reverse was actually true, as people are prepared to pay plenty for food if they are hungry, so for farmers, a shortage is more profitable than an excess. Of course, for the population in general, industrial agriculture brought great advances in food availability, choice, quality, price and so forth, and I would not change that, but the farmer paid a heavy price for the over-production that came with it. Now it seems that the impending diversion of plant biomass into fuel production may soon bring about a change where food becomes scarcer, and guess what; prices will rise again. And this time the extra production will be needed by society, I suspect. It is interesting times that we live in. Con
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 15 March 2007 01:52 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Apple-Crop: Time article (More on same) You do know that DDT is being looked at very hard as the best product to use in third world countries for the control of malaria. This idea is being promoted by even papers such as the new york times. the only way that agriculture will have a chance is for farmers to be considered businessmen and not the little old man and woman that show the pitchfork and the shack. Only in mid-size farms would we put the large investment and be satisfied with the small or negative return. All other entities would have left long ago as a matter of fact they did. Kenny Barnwell _____ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339> AOL.com.
