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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (361751)	2/20/2003 2:58:27 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I do not know how you calculate the energy efficiency of "sweated labor" versus machines. If the cheap labor ever diminishes in supply, and one has to pay a living wage, then there goes the advantage. Right now, a lot of agriculture requiring stoop labor would be hard hit by the provision of wages sufficient to raise a family by American standards, and depend on the indentured servitude of illegal immigrants. As for manure and biomass fertilizers, it may be that they are superior, I only wonder why their comparative cheapness has not been compelling to farmers themselves. If the oil is cheap, then it is more efficient. If it does not depend on exploitative labor practices, it is more humane. How it will be in the future is difficult to predict, since we are still testing the potential of petroleum alternatives, and of increased fuel efficiency motors. I agree on bio- tech.......

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (361751)	2/20/2003 3:40:33 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

<<Low tech agriculture uses a lot less energy per unit of food produced (manure and biomass instead of commercial - petroleum derived - fertilizers... and cheap labor instead of oil-gulping combines).>> Currently turkey litter is selling for $14 per ton but adds $30 per ton in nutrients. The problem is that the government treats it like toxic waste. You have to get all sorts of permits and meet lots of special situations to use it. If you want to get rid of combines grain prices will have to get a lot higher. A combine will pick and shell about 100 acres of corn a day. A man can do about half an acre. With 75 million acres of corn in the US you're gonna have to hire a LOT of people to do it by hand.