5 ms·
> But when a crop is complete, farmers plow everything back into the soil. Some of it ends up as organic matter that is supporting soil health, and that is okay
by nitwit005 6y ago
> But when a crop is complete, farmers plow everything back into the soil. Some of it ends up as organic matter that is supporting soil health, and that is okay, too.
Basically declaring that the waste is not waste. Solving problems by changing definitions.
- skywhopper 6y agoPlowing it back into the fields means less fertilizer is needed for future crops. How is that waste?
- incelmods 6y agoit's not a waste of the veggie, however it's not like a huge amount of different resources were not spent from the time the plant sprouted to the time it was determined "compost this ugly thing." as an far down the line example - we hate DRM being misused, and by composting ugly fruit you are supporting DRM. if you have 1000 acres of crops, you'll need to fix your tractor 10 times (number out of my ass). if you sell a higher% of the food you grow, you now need 700 acres. You now need to repair the tractor 7 times. John Deere now gets 30% less money, and that 30% spent on DRM was the waste. there are other things. like the time of the guy who has to look at the fruit, which there are less of now. he's in the sun, he gets thirsty, drinks water. if he has to be out in the sun 30% more to look through 30% more fruit, he drinks more water. and that's a waste of water.
- NeutronStar 6y agoIt needed that fertilizer to grow to even be plowed back in to start. It's just a waste of space for a "good product". It's basically a free pass for next year. No money gained means no profits means profits loss.
- hawski 6y agoThat's like a perpetual motion machine. Energy is wasted, there is no way around it.
- jdsully 6y agoIf a field is harvested too efficiently it needs to be left fallow to rebuild lost nutrients. Leaving some in the ground is not waste by any definition.
- ip26 6y agoWell... You do need to account for the lost inputs, e.g. fertilizer that runs off instead of being sequestered, water pumped in for irrigation, gasoline to power a tractor, and so forth. A cover crop (e.g. clover) specifically for building soil that grows without aid of fertilizer or irrigation is a better story in this regard.
- jedimastert 6y agoIt's it essentially composting? How is that waste?
- nitwit005 6y agoIf I buy a tomato, and throw it in my garden, eating none of it, most people would say I wasted the tomato. There are far cheaper methods of fertilizing my garden than tossing food into it, which makes it "wasteful". At a certain point you have to pick a definition of what counts as food waste, and stick with it. Fiddling with the definition isn't going to make the world a better place.
- pdonis 6y agoNo, pointing out that what some people call waste is not actually being wasted, it is serving a useful purpose. "Waste" means it is serving no useful purpose at all.
- nitwit005 6y agoIt's fairly difficult to do something that serves no conceivable purpose. I could buy stuff and throw it straight into the trash and we could say it's not waste as I'm supporting manufacturing and the garbage industry. If you care about limiting some wasteful practice, you have to pick some definition of what counts as waste.
- econcon 6y agoIf the produce is lost, it's tax deductible If the produce goes back to soil, it's an expense and next time it will result in higher output.