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I have a friend who farms organic walnuts, and who turned me on to all of these ideas. I agree with you (and him) that all of this should be done at scale. The
by eszed 3y ago
I have a friend who farms organic walnuts, and who turned me on to all of these ideas. I agree with you (and him) that all of this should be done at scale. The obstacle, as I understand it, is that yields aren't as high as "conventional" farming, so while it is possible to scale perma-culture ag, meeting world food requirements will require more land under cultivation. Food prices will rise. That's probably still not enough to grow enough for everyone, so we'd have to significantly reduce food waste, and / or reduce meat production and consumption, as well.
Those are all good ideas! If I had a magic wand to wave to create that world, I would. But, in the world as it exists, it's really, really difficult to persuade enough people to change behavior (and legislation) enough to make all that happen quickly.
Barring disaster, of course. Which may be where "conventional" agriculture is taking us.
I find the whole subject, and many others of modernity, depressing: we know what has to be done, but see no way of achieving it.
Anyone have anything cheerful to tell me?
- Lutger 3y agoYeah I have something, I think its basically not true that yields are lower when you implement the cutting edge stuff AEA is doing. Current legislation and politics doesn't help, but true regenerative ag (not greenwashed) will also outperform conventional ag in the free market eventually. This is beyond just organic, making use of the latest scientific insights, on plant sap analysis and being data driven.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoYields are higher than they need to be already for many crops and subsidies have long distorted the market and arguably have incentivized the wrong things. We could stand a bit of inefficiency if we gain a lot of resilience and other nth order beneficial effects to the ecosystem as a result.
- stareatgoats 3y agoNot sure if I am a harbinger of cheerfulness exactly, but I believe I can see hope in the long-term trajectory. The idea that everything needs to be sustainable is slowly gaining traction. Too slowly, obviously, but the momentum is there nonetheless. The notion that we need to have a fraction cheaper foodstuffs at the expense of poisoning the environment and ourselves is already dead, the job now is primarily to document the havoc and point to viable solutions.