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Non-Tech : Farming -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (1080)	5/7/2008 5:58:44 AM
From: mcg404	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4443

I only express skepticism about the logic and motivation of bringing american style ag to africa. For this I was accused of either wanting or being oblivious to the questionable conclusion that failure to do this would lead to starvation. Colliers prescription is foolish because american style ag depends on cheap energy (which may be a questionable assumption going forward) and his dismissal of sustainability as some romantic ideal is amazing as well. Of course many of the negative impacts of the green revolution (destruction of soil fertility, nutrient pollution, etc) are off the balance sheet so of little interest to an economist i suppose. But let's ask the people in what was previously called the Fertile Crescent (and quite a few other places) how they feel about non-sustainable ag practices. Is it really that difficult to accept, that at some point, population need to be in balance with productive resources? Certainly we can temporarily transgress the productive capacity by using non-sustainable practices but is this wise and should we be listening to people who advocate it? A generation ago Garrett Hardin suggested that carrying capacity should be considered an ethical concept. I guess today such an idea is no longer worthy of debate. And of course there is always more money to be made by increase supply than controlling demand. Not to mention that many people relish the role of white man's burden - teaching the poor natives how to do thing right (right being the good ol' american way). For an alternative perspective on how things might be done, here is an interesting article about one country transforming their ag system to a non-energy intensive approach. harpers.org