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Less reliance on the tech sector for hardware solutions, and more research in logistics and supply chain. Let farmers farm. They are proving that it can be don

Less reliance on the tech sector for hardware solutions, and more research in logistics and supply chain. Let farmers farm. They are proving that it can be done with more profitability acre-for-acre with hand tools than tractors https://www.neversinkfarm.com/ https://www.neversinkfarm.com/

bdamm 7y ago
That is patently absurd. There is a reason why nearly every corn and wheat farm has a combine.
- squish78 7y ago
  Explain how what I said is patently absurd. Are we looking at the same USDA data?
  - bdamm 7y ago
    Specific farms may be able to take advantage of their position or specialization and use hand-tools to gain more value per-acre, but that kind of specialization cannot scale up to commercial scale where a farmer with a set of machines can profitably farm dozens of acres or more. They aren't putting as much care into each acre, but in the end it doesn't matter. And, if everyone was doing what the specialized teams are doing, then probably the market that feeds the specialization would collapse because now there's no restriction on supply and prices for the product would go down. This is just basic economics.
    - squish78 7y ago
      You make several outdated assumptions about farming in the USA that are based in 20th century models of agriculture. The entire sector is incredibly fragile in its present form, because every method is unsustainable. Industrial agriculture is depleting soil fertility faster than it can be replaced. Topsoil has been decimated in the past 100 years. This is primarily due to tractor tillage and herbicides. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-... Correlation between monoculture field crops and bee colony collapse https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-and-monoculture-nothing-to-dance-about/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-a... Monoculture field crops are 100% dependent on chemical nitrogen fertilizer, the supply of which is finite https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247398/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247398/ This is nothing to say about the ethics of undocumented indentured servitude of migrant labor, which floats the entire California farm sector
- mythrwy 7y ago
  A lot of times agronomic crop farmers don't own harvest machinery at all. They grow the crop then contract the harvest (or alternatively sell the harvest in the field).
  - squish78 7y ago
    This is true. The issue, in my opinion, is that if we complicate the agricultural industry with too many specialized independent operators, it just creates more potential places to fail. Farming is one of those trades where its better to have generalists, for the sake of creating a resilient food supply

bdamm 7y ago

That is patently absurd. There is a reason why nearly every corn and wheat farm has a combine.

squish78 7y ago
Explain how what I said is patently absurd. Are we looking at the same USDA data?
- bdamm 7y ago
  Specific farms may be able to take advantage of their position or specialization and use hand-tools to gain more value per-acre, but that kind of specialization cannot scale up to commercial scale where a farmer with a set of machines can profitably farm dozens of acres or more. They aren't putting as much care into each acre, but in the end it doesn't matter. And, if everyone was doing what the specialized teams are doing, then probably the market that feeds the specialization would collapse because now there's no restriction on supply and prices for the product would go down. This is just basic economics.
  - squish78 7y ago
    You make several outdated assumptions about farming in the USA that are based in 20th century models of agriculture. The entire sector is incredibly fragile in its present form, because every method is unsustainable. Industrial agriculture is depleting soil fertility faster than it can be replaced. Topsoil has been decimated in the past 100 years. This is primarily due to tractor tillage and herbicides. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-... Correlation between monoculture field crops and bee colony collapse https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-and-monoculture-nothing-to-dance-about/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-a... Monoculture field crops are 100% dependent on chemical nitrogen fertilizer, the supply of which is finite https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247398/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247398/ This is nothing to say about the ethics of undocumented indentured servitude of migrant labor, which floats the entire California farm sector
mythrwy 7y ago
A lot of times agronomic crop farmers don't own harvest machinery at all. They grow the crop then contract the harvest (or alternatively sell the harvest in the field).
- squish78 7y ago
  This is true. The issue, in my opinion, is that if we complicate the agricultural industry with too many specialized independent operators, it just creates more potential places to fail. Farming is one of those trades where its better to have generalists, for the sake of creating a resilient food supply