Comments on: America’s unsustainable industrial agriculture

By: Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Eat less meat - Eating Real Food

Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Eat less meat - Eating Real Food — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:29:16 +0000

[...] years ago, I wrote an manifesto criticizing America’s industrial agriculture in part on the unsustainable cost of transportation. Chain supermarkets offer discount prices on [...]

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:31:00 +0000

Good summary, but it seems to me that you’re implying industrial agriculture requires the use of fossil fuel inputs for pesticides and fertilizers. However, I think it is the other way around. The use of pesticides and fertilizers has lead to factory farming as farmers found they required less labor to manage larger areas of land.

By: Greyfox

Greyfox — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:20:34 +0000

A comment on your analysis: absolutely spot on. A couple of extra items to throw into the mix…the salinization of over 1/5th of the acreage due to irrigation; the loss of topsoil at an increasing rate (it is estimated that Iowa will lose it’s viable topsoil by perhaps 2050); the increase of about 100 million mouths in America (to 400 million) by 2050, with no practical end in sight; the draw down of all major aquifers (including the massive Ogalala); the loss of arable land to development…
Add these to the fossil fuel dilemma and you have a perfect storm for disaster. I don’t see anyone advocating a sane solution (if there is one) yet. Read anything by Wendell Berry on farming about proper farming…yet even he doesn’t address the population issue very well.