Comment on i enjoy high fructose corn syrup too
Bluewing@lemmy.world 8 hours agoThere is one thing that people miss about that whole “10 acres to feed one cow” statement. Yep, it can take that much land. But what doesn’t get said is that one cow can take advantage of land that is unsuitable to grow crops on like tomatoes, peppers, and onions.
In the US, California produces more fresh produce every year than any other state can. But it comes at a high cost of farming land that really isn’t naturally suitable for growing those vegetables. Farmers need to pump millions of gallons of water on those acres to get those crops to grow. This in turn puts pressure on the supply of water to everyone else in the state. And much of this farmland had all it could do to grow grass in some years originally.
Aquifers are going starting to go dry because of this. The vast Ogilala aquifer that supplies water to almost all of the US west is starting to go dry. Because we now are farming land that probably be best left to growing grasses for cattle, sheep, or goats rather than tomatoes or soybeans.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
The other research I remember from my reading about this subject years ago was the efficiency of industrial farming. Per acre, industrial farming produces very low or minimal yields … whereas an acre that is tended, micromanaged and monitored by small scale farmers has much high yields. It meant that the only way for industrial farms to be able to produce large amounts of produce is to farm huge acreages in order to make up for the losses or inefficiencies.
One of the reasons why the Californian desert is drying up is that industrial farming is so inefficient that in order to sustain itself as a business model is for it grow ever larger and more invasive … it needs more land and more water in order for it to continually grow as a business. It’s not a way of farming that is meant to produce food efficiently for people … it’s a type of farming that is meant to produce profit, money and control for a corporation.
It’s feeding a monolithic corporation … it’s not feeding people.
All our world problems including global warming, food production, water supply are manageable and can be dealt with to help people in very efficient and possible ways … all of it is hindered and complicated by the fact that corporations sit in opposition to all of it because of their ever wanting need to turn a profit, even if it means destroying the environment and everyone who lives in that environment.