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Harpers article on agriculture (fwd)
This is forwarded from ag-impact, FYI.
Andy
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 07:30:33 -0500
From: Artifaxi@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <ag-impact@freedom.mtn.org>
Subject: harpers article on agriculture
The October 1997 Harpers carries an article on page 13 by Davis Ehrenfeld
which is excerpted from "A Cruel and Transient Agriculture"
Here is a snippet-
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The primary problem is that Green Revolution agribusiness requires vast
amounts of energy to grow and sustain these "miracle crops." Oil must be
burned to make the large quantities of nitrogen fertilizer on which these
plants depend. Farmers also must invest heavily in toxic herbicides,
insecticides, and fungicides; in irrigation systems; and in spraying,
harvesting, and processing machinery for the weakened, seed heavy plants.
Large sums of money must be bor rowed to pay for these "inputs" before the
growing season starts in the hope that crop sales will allow farmers to repay
the debt later in the season. When that hope is frustrated, the farmer often
loses his farm and is driven into a migrant pool of cheap labor for
corporate-farming operations or is forced to seek work in the landless,
teeming cities.
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Excluding military spending on fabulously expensive, dysfunctional weapons
systems, there is no more dramatic case of people having their needs
appropriated for the sake of profit at any cost. Like high-input agriculture,
genetic engineering is often justified as a humane technology, one that feeds
more people with better food. Nothing could be further from the truth. With
very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic engineering is to increase
the sales of chemicals and bioengineered products to dependent farmers, and
to increase the dependence of farmers on their new handlers, the seed
companies and the oil, chemical, and pharmaceutical companies that own them.
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