5 ms·

If we want rain & stable climate, we need to plant more trees / forests (see bionic pump, natural farming, forest gardens, atmospheric rivers, ...). As mr. Fuku

by myshpa 4y ago

If we want rain & stable climate, we need to plant more trees / forests (see bionic pump, natural farming, forest gardens, atmospheric rivers, ...). As mr. Fukuoka says, rain comes not from earth/sky, but from the plants. We could do that if we'd only replace cow's milk with nut milk and significantly reduce our (egregious) meat consumption. Then we could reforest upto 75% of our fields and it would sure help repair the water cycle / climate instability (among other good things). If we don't do it, things will get so bad, even west will weep. Good news - it's something even we as individuals can influence. Simply choose plant based food when you can, and help reduce our agricultural impact. Btw, our fields are not nature - we have too many of them, they are in fact green deserts, it's all deforested land, they don't influence the weather / water cycle in a good way, they destroy biodiversity, they poison everything, even most people have pesticides in their bodies. Our current agricultural / dietary practices are killing the earth. Sorry, need sleep, so no sources, but somebody has to say it - study it yourself. Edit: wow, 2 downvotes in less than 1 minute. Let it rain, burger chompers ;)

orionion 4y ago
??? They did plant a nut milk forest... A billion pounds of California almonds stranded at US ports https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9442683/a-billion-pounds-of-california-almonds-stranded-at-us-ports/ https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9442683/a-billion-pounds-...
- myshpa 4y ago
  That article is about problems with transporting almonds with ships (oceanic carriers ... make twice as many annual round trips by sending empty containers back to Asia to pick up more goods for export instead of ... almonds)? That's for another discussion ... one where I would talk about Alascan-Siberian bridge and trains, but ... let it wait for another time. And sorry, but california farms are not forests. A monoculture from horizon to horizon is bad practice not only for the grains, but for the trees also. For example, if done right they wouldn't need to water / deplete ground water reservoirs and hoard bees from around the country every year. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-permaculture-food-forests https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-permaculture-f... https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/multi-story-tree-lines/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/multi-story-tree-lines/
triyambakam 4y ago
I eat beans for every meal. Fruit and dal for breakfast; dal, veggies and more fruit for lunch; dal and more veggies for dinner (with something like plantain, breadfruit etc.) and snack on nuts and seeds throughout the day. I love the simplicity.
cercatrova 4y ago
Try convincing a majority of the population to give up meat and milk, I guarantee you people won't want to.
- prawn 4y ago
  Political will and lobbying would be the chief obstacles on the milk side. Flavour/texture and tradition strong factors on the grazing livestock side. With a national, concerted effort I think you could slowly make headway on milk at least. Subsidies, convert flavoured milks first, UHT if possible. In theory that is. In reality, not going to happen in a hurry. I wonder if pricing will eventually influence the meat side. Patties and sausages become non-meat first, steaks increasingly become a luxury. As it is, I'm not confident budget sausages are quality so it wouldn't take much to take them down.
  - myshpa 4y ago
    Stop subsidizing the things that hurt the planet. Everything. Oil and meat/milk alike. When for production of 1000kJ of food you need 120m2 of land to produce beef vs. 1m2 of land to produce beans/peas, the unsubsidized market would take care of the problem. Let the capitalism work for us for once ;)
    - cercatrova 4y ago
      Subsidies are critical for a sovereign state to maintain control over its lands and people. If there were a food shortage, like in Sri Lanka, people would revolt.
teslabox 4y ago
> We could do that if we'd only replace cow's milk with nut milk Agree that meat is very inefficient. But… Dairy animals concentrate the calories on land that can’t be mechanically farmed, converting them into human-usable nutrition. Even dairy animals on a conventional dairy farm upcycle calories - just searched and learned dairy farmers can boost a cow’s low-quality straw diet with cottonseed meal (high protein). Humans don’t eat cottonseed meal. I’ve known people with a single dairy cow, or a few dairy goats. I don’t think “nut milk” works without a nut milk factory.
- myshpa 4y ago
  > I don’t think “nut milk” works without a nut milk factory. You are mistaken. Take 20-100g of any nuts (or oat flakes, or cooked rice/potatoes, what have you), 1-2 dates (or a pinch of sugar), 1 litre of water, and put it in the blender. Filter it through a sieve. You've got milk, no factory needed !
  - watwut 4y ago
    Nuts are much more expensive them milk and require a gasoline to be transported to places that are quite close to actual cows. Also, that thing you described does not sound like milk. More like rice with nuts mix.
    - myshpa 4y ago
      > Nuts are much more expensive than milk Milk is heavily subsidized, nuts are not. We could integrate (nut) trees into our agricultural fields, it would help with local temperatures, water retention, soil erosion, biodiversity, nutrition availability, the list is endless ... and the price of nuts would go rapidly down. > require a gasoline to be transported to places that are quite close to actual cows https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0c41fcj.webp https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0c41fcj.webp - Emissions (in kg CO2e) from the food supply chain – the climate impact of food miles is often a small proportion (Source: Our World in Data/Poore and Nemecek, Science, 2018) > that thing you described does not sound like milk That is a universal recipe for a plant based milk (lookup some recipes on the net if you don't believe it).

by myshpa 4y ago

orionion 4y ago

??? They did plant a nut milk forest... A billion pounds of California almonds stranded at US ports https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9442683/a-billion-pounds-of-california-almonds-stranded-at-us-ports/ https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9442683/a-billion-pounds-...

myshpa 4y ago
That article is about problems with transporting almonds with ships (oceanic carriers ... make twice as many annual round trips by sending empty containers back to Asia to pick up more goods for export instead of ... almonds)? That's for another discussion ... one where I would talk about Alascan-Siberian bridge and trains, but ... let it wait for another time. And sorry, but california farms are not forests. A monoculture from horizon to horizon is bad practice not only for the grains, but for the trees also. For example, if done right they wouldn't need to water / deplete ground water reservoirs and hoard bees from around the country every year. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-permaculture-food-forests https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-permaculture-f... https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/multi-story-tree-lines/ https://agendagotsch.com/en/multi-story-tree-lines/

triyambakam 4y ago

I eat beans for every meal. Fruit and dal for breakfast; dal, veggies and more fruit for lunch; dal and more veggies for dinner (with something like plantain, breadfruit etc.) and snack on nuts and seeds throughout the day. I love the simplicity.

cercatrova 4y ago

Try convincing a majority of the population to give up meat and milk, I guarantee you people won't want to.

prawn 4y ago
Political will and lobbying would be the chief obstacles on the milk side. Flavour/texture and tradition strong factors on the grazing livestock side. With a national, concerted effort I think you could slowly make headway on milk at least. Subsidies, convert flavoured milks first, UHT if possible. In theory that is. In reality, not going to happen in a hurry. I wonder if pricing will eventually influence the meat side. Patties and sausages become non-meat first, steaks increasingly become a luxury. As it is, I'm not confident budget sausages are quality so it wouldn't take much to take them down.
- myshpa 4y ago
  Stop subsidizing the things that hurt the planet. Everything. Oil and meat/milk alike. When for production of 1000kJ of food you need 120m2 of land to produce beef vs. 1m2 of land to produce beans/peas, the unsubsidized market would take care of the problem. Let the capitalism work for us for once ;)
  - cercatrova 4y ago
    Subsidies are critical for a sovereign state to maintain control over its lands and people. If there were a food shortage, like in Sri Lanka, people would revolt.

teslabox 4y ago

> We could do that if we'd only replace cow's milk with nut milk Agree that meat is very inefficient. But… Dairy animals concentrate the calories on land that can’t be mechanically farmed, converting them into human-usable nutrition. Even dairy animals on a conventional dairy farm upcycle calories - just searched and learned dairy farmers can boost a cow’s low-quality straw diet with cottonseed meal (high protein). Humans don’t eat cottonseed meal. I’ve known people with a single dairy cow, or a few dairy goats. I don’t think “nut milk” works without a nut milk factory.

myshpa 4y ago
> I don’t think “nut milk” works without a nut milk factory. You are mistaken. Take 20-100g of any nuts (or oat flakes, or cooked rice/potatoes, what have you), 1-2 dates (or a pinch of sugar), 1 litre of water, and put it in the blender. Filter it through a sieve. You've got milk, no factory needed !
- watwut 4y ago
  Nuts are much more expensive them milk and require a gasoline to be transported to places that are quite close to actual cows. Also, that thing you described does not sound like milk. More like rice with nuts mix.
  - myshpa 4y ago
    > Nuts are much more expensive than milk Milk is heavily subsidized, nuts are not. We could integrate (nut) trees into our agricultural fields, it would help with local temperatures, water retention, soil erosion, biodiversity, nutrition availability, the list is endless ... and the price of nuts would go rapidly down. > require a gasoline to be transported to places that are quite close to actual cows https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0c41fcj.webp https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1600x900/p0c41fcj.webp - Emissions (in kg CO2e) from the food supply chain – the climate impact of food miles is often a small proportion (Source: Our World in Data/Poore and Nemecek, Science, 2018) > that thing you described does not sound like milk That is a universal recipe for a plant based milk (lookup some recipes on the net if you don't believe it).