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"Have you never been to rural areas? I assure you they are not lined with industrial warehouses and artificial lighting systems." You are aware that Farmville
by Tichy 15y ago
"Have you never been to rural areas? I assure you they are not lined with industrial warehouses and artificial lighting systems."
You are aware that Farmville != rural areas in the real world? There are movies and books depicting the industrial rising of cattle (for example "Eating Animals" does a nice, graphics job). You can spot the "pink lakes" which result from the waste output of industrial pig farming on Google Maps. But these are indeed not the areas you would visit on a weekend trip to the countryside, because these areas reek for miles.
Just because some chickens still roam outside, doesn't prove that the majority of them does.
The article about pig farming was on HN years ago, but I can't find it atm. But Google provides a lot of info "factory farming".
- rwolf 15y agoThe things you are saying are true about livestock. The commenters above are talking about fruits and vegetables specifically. It makes sense to me that a dirt patch and sunlight out in Ohio are cheaper than setting up hydroponics plants.
- Tichy 15y agoMissed that, sorry :-(
- kahawe 15y agoThis might apply more here in Europe than in the USA, considering you have such an abundance of land available. But our cheaper vegetables are notoriously grown in glasshouses in the Netherlands and Spain over here and they do not touch any real soil; and it is ultimately cheaper and allows for better use of the space since they can grow on several levels and harvesting is much easier than having to dig something in and later out in the field. The worse part still remains: chemicals, pesticides and lots and lots of genetically altered vegetables and fruits. You cannot even use their seeds to grow new ones; you have to buy seeds from e.g. Monsanto each year along with all the chemicals you need to grow that stuff. You have to watch "We Feed the World"!