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Overproduction is also protection against famine and blight. Produce doesn't keep very long; you can't keep a large store of it in case this year's crop fails.

by tbabb 7y ago

Overproduction is also protection against famine and blight. Produce doesn't keep very long; you can't keep a large store of it in case this year's crop fails. You also cannot suddenly ramp up production in the event of catastrophe; it takes months between planting and harvest. Instead, you have to produce much more than you think you need, so that in the unlikely event that your yield is half of what you anticipated, there is not a food crisis. You also have to destroy the excess when it's not needed, so that you don't distort the market, or acclimatize it to extremely cheap food. Deliberate overproduction is a good use of government funds. It stops people from dying.

jelliclesfarm 7y ago
That overproduction is protection against famine and blight would have been a valid point 100 years ago. Most of what we overproduce is wasted. We import and export food now. We know how to preserve and process food now. Or converted into processed food. For example: high fructose corn syrup is everywhere. And it’s a lab created by product of our excess corn production. Overproduction and cheap food is causing disease and obesity and waste and environmental degradation. We can synthesize food in fermentation tanks. We can grow food indoors and in containers and without soil. Having said that..it’s important distinguish between the various kinds of crops we grow..commodities like corn, wheat, rice, cotton, sugar beets, canola, soy etc. and then we have tomatoes and kale and herbs and spices. Everything can be frozen, dehydrated, processed and rationed. Every tilled field extracts a cost from the soil. Every pass of the tractor or every cross country trip to deliver goods is a fossil fuel expense. We haven’t figured ways to use renewable energy in Ag. We save water through drip tapes but we use mountains of plastic. Not to mention the tractor runs to lay it down and to remove it. We grow food without soil and save water but we use electricity with indoor productions. No matter how you see it, production extracts a cost. Over production is more expensive. Over production a population that is growing exponentially costs even more. We should predict our needs(possible now), forecast expenses(possible now) and budget and ration resources..especially non renewable resources and not fritter them away with wasteful food over production.

by tbabb 7y ago

jelliclesfarm 7y ago

That overproduction is protection against famine and blight would have been a valid point 100 years ago. Most of what we overproduce is wasted. We import and export food now. We know how to preserve and process food now. Or converted into processed food. For example: high fructose corn syrup is everywhere. And it’s a lab created by product of our excess corn production. Overproduction and cheap food is causing disease and obesity and waste and environmental degradation. We can synthesize food in fermentation tanks. We can grow food indoors and in containers and without soil. Having said that..it’s important distinguish between the various kinds of crops we grow..commodities like corn, wheat, rice, cotton, sugar beets, canola, soy etc. and then we have tomatoes and kale and herbs and spices. Everything can be frozen, dehydrated, processed and rationed. Every tilled field extracts a cost from the soil. Every pass of the tractor or every cross country trip to deliver goods is a fossil fuel expense. We haven’t figured ways to use renewable energy in Ag. We save water through drip tapes but we use mountains of plastic. Not to mention the tractor runs to lay it down and to remove it. We grow food without soil and save water but we use electricity with indoor productions. No matter how you see it, production extracts a cost. Over production is more expensive. Over production a population that is growing exponentially costs even more. We should predict our needs(possible now), forecast expenses(possible now) and budget and ration resources..especially non renewable resources and not fritter them away with wasteful food over production.