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> Mining is what Australia does. There's another odd perspective on this in Jared Diamond's book Collapse, in the "Mining Australia" chapter: > Most of Austra

by shoo 6y ago

> Mining is what Australia does. There's another odd perspective on this in Jared Diamond's book Collapse, in the "Mining Australia" chapter: > Most of Australia's remaining agriculture is in effect a mining operation that does not add to Australia's wealth but merely converts environmental capital of soil and native vegetation irreversibly into cash, with the help of indirect government subsidies [...] That is, similarly to how mining activity depends upon consuming non-renewable stocks of ore or fossil-fuel* that can be extracted with sufficiently low energy cost, the argument is that agricultural activity depends upon consuming stocks of high-quality soil at a much faster rate than the stock of high-quality soil can be being refilled. If the rate of consumption is much higher than the rate of production then high-quality soil is effectively non-renewable. * i guess fossil fuels are also "renewable" in a literal interpretation of the word that it is possible to refill stocks, given a long enough time horizon (billions of years?) & a willingness to take a bit of a gamble that the conditions for large-scale fossil fuel creation will recurr, provided the rate of consumption of fossil fuel slows.

marcus_holmes 6y ago
This was/is certainly true of the vast sheep stations. Sheep farming was a disastrous decision for Australia, made because British garment manufacturing needed more cheap wool[0]. IIRC this is part of that chapter of the book. But recently, there's been much more of a move to less destructive practices. Lots of mediterranean-type farms (olives, wine, etc) more suitable to the soil and climate. [0]anecdata: in the late 80's I worked on an English sheep farm, at 100 sheep to the acre, and cut their toenails. I also worked on an Aussie sheep farm, at 100 acres to the sheep, and had to kill flyblown sheep being eaten alive by maggots. Crazy contrast.

by shoo 6y ago

marcus_holmes 6y ago

This was/is certainly true of the vast sheep stations. Sheep farming was a disastrous decision for Australia, made because British garment manufacturing needed more cheap wool[0]. IIRC this is part of that chapter of the book. But recently, there's been much more of a move to less destructive practices. Lots of mediterranean-type farms (olives, wine, etc) more suitable to the soil and climate. [0]anecdata: in the late 80's I worked on an English sheep farm, at 100 sheep to the acre, and cut their toenails. I also worked on an Aussie sheep farm, at 100 acres to the sheep, and had to kill flyblown sheep being eaten alive by maggots. Crazy contrast.