629 IS THERE A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE TO FACTORY FARMS?

[michaelo]

They moved the animal farm into a factory so we could have cheap food. But Michael Olson’s Third Law of the Food Chain says Cheap food isn’t! And so we wonder…

Is there a viable alternative to the factory farm?

[michaelo]

They moved the animal farm into a factory so we could all have cheap food. But Michael Olson’s Third Law of the Food Chain says Cheap food isn’t! And so we wonder…

Is there a viable alternative to the factory farm?

Progress always seems to be a matter of containing ever more people on the same amount of land.

To date, agriculture has done an incredible job of keeping up with progress, as we now have billions of people living where mere millions lived a few short decades ago.

Some of agriculture’s increased productivity has been made possible by the Green Revolution of Norman Borlaug and associates, who developed higher yielding strains of crops like wheat and rice. More productivity is coming as a consequence of our gaining the ability to manipulate the genetic structure of plants in order to make them do what they would otherwise not be able to do.

Perhaps the largest gain in productivity has been gained simply by learning how to grow ever more plants and animals in ever smaller spaces. The ability to grow more in less has changed the nature of animal husbandry: Where there were once many chicken farmers raising a few hundred chickens each, there are now a few chicken farmers growing hundreds of thousands of chickens each! And where there were once many hog farmers growing a few score of hogs, there are now a few hog farmers growing many thousands of hogs.

These “factory farms” yield an abundant supply of cheap meat, which means you and I can enjoy a hamburger for a small amount of pocket change.

But wait! There is something about “cheap food” that has many running for the door!

Rancher Bill Niman recognized that many share an uncertainty about factory farmed animals, and built a $65 million dollar business on the righteous raising of food animals.

Rancher, Lawyer and Author of “Righteous Porkchop,” Nicolette Hahn Niman, waged war on the factory farms on behalf of Robert Kennedy Jr’s Waterkeep Alliance.

And so we pause to ask the Nimans…

Is there an economically viable alternative to industrial animal husbandry?

[LEE]

Good points Bobbyg. Regarding the question;

Mankind has farmed for thousands of years, the methods were natural ways that worked with the way nature was set up and they worked well.Sure some people ate and some starved,nothings gonna change that, always has been always will be.

I keep hearing about how we have to keep increasing the outputs to feed the world,there is a problem with this thinking.
We do not have to feed the world, we have to feed ourselves,others have to feed themselves, making food into a commodity and making people reliant upon that commodity is another part of the problem.

Most farmers used to feed themselves and some others with their excess,but now farmers are expected to feed others, alot of others,why?

We have the systems in place to feed ourselves,and others that still work and dont require all the imputs that the establishment wants to sell us, so we are told to get with the program and buy more stuff, for ourselves and for our farms,and to do so we must sell more to buy the stuff, this ride is looking like a treadmill more every day.

I believe that people have to learn that there are limits,so many farmers/gardeners can only feed so many non farmers /gardeners.

At some point some more people are going to have to get with reality and start growing at least some of their own sustainence.

Problem is most people dont know and most don't care about raising food, they want to pay someone to do that for them,just as long as its really cheap or even free, its sad that we are so lazy and so far removed from reality that we are willing to buy into the lie that only monsanto or someone like them can save us,all because we cant be bothered to turn off the TV and pick some weeds,

so much so that we are letting corporations take control over the food supply so that we dont have to worry about that issue,time to wake up, time to quit expecting someone else to feed us,even if we dont pay them a living wage to do so, its getting to be nuts, yes there is a better way to raise food,some of the new, lots of the tried and true and some effort on our part,thats what will work, otherwise we get screwed! thanks Lee

[qbarfarm]

Remember: Many large corporations started as "Family Farmers" who found a way to make more money by selling more product. That, in turn, enabled more people to move to the cities. Competition drove the price of food down.
I think Wall Street trading of our food as "commodities" and getting farmers to participate in it is the real crime.