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Re: Roundup information
A few too many comments. I got carried away.
Jv wrote:
>
> Who are these people commenting on Roundup.
I don't know much about Roundup except that it's unsustainable in that
it's a chemical that must be "mined" and manufactured. If something
kills tough weeds it will probably kill tough people too.
>
> Do gooders I suspect
As opposed to do badders?
>
> They want cheap food but they want to stop using chemical to kill
> pests.
We all want cheap food. In America we have cheap food compared to
most people in the world if take into account average incomes.
Everybody
wants a comfortable life. Components to that include; food, shelter,
health. You can't separate food from health. It's a matter of
priorities. Is the cheap food worth the potential health risks? Are
there reasonable alternatives? Can we develop cheap food without
chemicals? How did people grow food before chemicals? Are chemicals
sustainable? What will my land look like in 50 or 100 years?
> I would love to grow food without chemicals, but then peolpe would
> have to pay 10X more for it. If people in the cities want to do it
> then im in.
Not if you grow the food you eat for yourself. I grow loads of
vegetables and fruits for myself and don't pay all that much. I also
know many people who purchase food directly from a local organic farm
and they pay on slightly more than non-organics from the supermarket.
Also, 10 times is an overexageration. We are good at finding solutions
to problems once we've identified something as a problem. We're also
very good at creating problems and telling people that they are not
problems. There is no reason that we couldn't find cheaper ways to grow
food without chemicals. Also, food grown with chemicals does not
represent it's true cost. We don't account for things like increased
health problems, topsoil loss etc.
> A couple of facts.
> If evey one in the world was to be fed the same amount of food EVERY
> ONE would stave.
Perhaps you're right, though I think it would depend on what KIND of
food everybody ate. There is a current grain crisis that most people
are unaware of. We are not keeping world grain reserves at a safe
level. In fact, four of the last 5 years have seen large decreases in
world grain reserves. Technically speaking we have enough food to feed
everybody assuming that we don't all eat grain intensive foods like meat
and eggs. In fact, China is posing a great threat to world grain prices
and supplies. In 1995 world grain prices doubled because China began
importing huge amounts of grain and it looks like it will continute to
do so. Better tighten your belt or be prepared to pay more for food in
the future.
As an aside, this trend will probably make organics more affordable
as the price of grain, pesticides, and herbicides continues to increase.
If you're interested there are ways to farm without pesticides but the
transition is not easy. In general though, sustainable ag is nearly
impossible using large scale farming. And when you imply that people in
the cities are the ones who don't want the chemicals I would argue that
the farmer's who are in direct contact with the chemicals have lots more
to lose from their use and should be the people at the forefront of
finding safer alternatives.
>
> If you do not use chmicals to control pests and you still try to grow
> the same yields, toxins build up in the ground and will shorten foods
> shelf life and may harm people.
I'm not sure what you are referring to here with toxins building up.
What does build up are natural preditors of the pests, and other
beneficial bacteria and criters.
Not to undermine the problems of pests but there are other methods
available to battle them. Again, I ask you, how did people farm before
the very recent invention of chemical pesticides?
The issues that I mention here are not easily solved and there are no
simple solutions. We all have a lot to learn from each other and I
don't believe that farmers, consumers, and everybody else involved with
food should isolate the other. We are quickly coming to an era in which
we find that we're farming all available land, deserts are growing,
population is soaring, the climate is warming, people are moving up the
food chain by consuming more meat, and water is becoming more scarce.
Ready for it?
Joe Dalsin - joed@igc.org
References:
- Re: Roundup information
- From: nntp-xfer.ncsu.edu!gatech!news-out.communique.net!communique!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!pumpkin.pangea.ca!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.@ultra150.ncren.net (Jv)