Andrew Reeves ([info]schizmatic) wrote,
@ 2008-12-02 09:45:00
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James Nicoll, this is for You
What we really need to deal with our food crisis is to have more expensive food that is harvested by human rather than machine labor. Seriously, what is it with a certain class of intellectual that is so wedded to the idea of how wonderful things would be if we all became peasant farmers? Wendell Berry, I'm looking at you.

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[info]pauldrye
2008-12-02 04:46 pm UTC (link)
They think how wonderful things would be if *you* became a peasant farmer and they continued to be an intellectual.

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[info]eveglass
2008-12-02 06:02 pm UTC (link)
Haven't read this article yet, so I can't comment on it. On the other hand, I have read that the most efficient use of land in terms of food produced per acre is *not* the same as the most efficient use in terms of man-hours.

In other words, it's most efficient, labor-wise, to have large-scale, monoculture farms that are sprayed with lots of chemicals. On the other hand, it's most productive, out-put wise, to have multi-crop planting that is hand-planted and hand-picked. (Because you can't use a tractor-harvester with so many different crops packed so closely together.)

Whether this has any bearing on what Nicoll is saying, I do not know.

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[info]henchminion
2008-12-03 03:28 am UTC (link)
The whole peasant diet thing always perplexes me. If the going gets tough, I'd rather be a warlord than a peasant. My friend [info]zornhau wrote a funny piece about that some time ago.

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[info]lemurbouy
2008-12-04 12:35 am UTC (link)
So my question to you, Mr. Reeves and all assembled is two fold.
a) Is there an inherent and worrisome problem with (North) America's food production be it environmental, economic, health-related, etc? And if so:
b) What are actual solutions that don't require mass starvation or unpaid labour?

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[info]schizmatic
2008-12-04 02:34 am UTC (link)
There is a definite problem with the way food comes to our tables, especially with respect to sustainability. But I seriously doubt the wisdom of "the answer to rising food prices is to make food even more expensive!" In fact, when your solution is always the same (in Pollans' case, America's very own Year Zero), then you show all the marks of an ideologue. Pollan was advocating higher food prices, more people working fields in the countryside, etc. back when food prices were at record lows. When they're at record highs, he's advocating the same thing--facts on the ground seem not to budge him.

The solution to food prices and sustainability is probably something that Pollan, Berry, et al. would detest, i.e., more of that awful science and technology that makes mother Gaia weep. I do not for a moment doubt that we can find fertilizers that use fewer fossil fuels, but the solution is not to go back to farming the land like peasants.

Long live Monsanto!

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