The Anthropocene controversy | 64 comments (64 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

The US can scale down to ... (4.00 / 6)

... half our productivity without any serious crimping on our capability to support 500,000 or so, because of the massive amounts of food that we are feeding to cows and chickens and pigs. Eating more of that food ourselves and eating meat only once every day or two rather than three or four times a day would turn the trick.

The worry is rather if we scale down to half our productivity and then scale down to half or a quarter of our productivity again as the midwestern heartland shifts to dryland farming and the dryland farming terrain turns to desert.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 12:08:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's why I prefer to bet on Europe (4.00 / 2)

in the long run. It's already been well broken in. The ecological equilibria are better understood. I think it can probably absorb a fair amount of climate change, as long as smallholding persists.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 03:30:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The US can scale down to ... (none / 0)

eating meat only once every day or two rather than three or four times a day would turn the trick

Sounds good only how would such a trick be accomplished?

by Jace on Sat May 14th, 2011 at 11:00:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The US can scale down to ... (none / 1)

As meat becomes more expensive, it'll happen.

The best way to accelerate it is probably to publicize the fact that "cheap" meat is nowhere near so cheap when you count the cost that factory farming dumps onto third parties.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sat May 14th, 2011 at 12:10:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The US can scale down to ... (none / 1)

"cheap" meat is nowhere near so cheap when you count the cost that factory farming dumps onto third parties.

And while you are counting, and publicizing the count, might as well note the effect factory farming has had on the iconic American farm family. After all, the diary has been largely about extinctions and threats of extinction.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat May 14th, 2011 at 09:49:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's part of the cost ... (none / 0)

... elimination of family farms. The Meatrix is a good youtube piece to spread around the word, and they make the destruction of family farms point quite effectively:

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sat May 14th, 2011 at 10:31:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The US can scale down to ... (4.00 / 3)

I suspect that as cheap meat gets lower content of quality meat (witness the EU debate on wheter meat glue should have to be declared) and an increased connection with health problems, its status will decline to a point where many might choose a more vegetarian lifestyle to avoid looking as scrap-meat losers.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Sun May 15th, 2011 at 04:54:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The US can scale down to ... (none / 1)

heh, as a vegan i resemble that!

not everybody is cut out to be, so i imagine most people in the future will be 90% vegetarian, with a few going the whole way.

Moroccans make vegetable tajin with a marrowbone for their couscous, chines slice small chunks of animal protein into their rice and veggie-based meals, same with much of asia.

meat eating will be at the periphery of diets, no longer the meat-and-2-veg, or 'giant slab o' porterhouse' approach, (unless you're a shepherd/cowboy with no refrigeration.)

people will be a lot healthier, (or will join the ancestors) especially with the work on the land to raise all the food now whipped out of the earth with copious petrochemicals, and its higher nutritional value.

you can also put up with a lot more political BS if you're healthier!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun May 15th, 2011 at 05:34:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

The Anthropocene controversy | 64 comments (64 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

Ruble and Yuan

What's Next, After the Slam?

Struggle NWO Unipolar or Multilateralism

City Agriculture - March 17, 2023

Shock Election Loss Rutte IV In Senate Race

Honduras Establishes Close Ties with China

A Return to Normalcy?

A Grand Slam for Ireland?

Recent Diaries

April 2023

Ruble and Yuan

The Insurrection President Indicted

KS: Barrister, Judge, Prison Warden, Assassin

History Hillsdale College, Alumni and Domestic Terror

Struggle NWO Unipolar or Multilateralism

Neo-Nazi Marches Across Europe

Fascism Unites America, Israel and EU Neo-Nazis

What's Next, After the Slam?

Settler Extremism Blessed by Jerusalem Leaders

US Interference In Lebanon-Syria-Ira
q

City Agriculture - March 17, 2023

Shock Election Loss Rutte IV In Senate Race

Stalemate Endures, Pessimism Grows, Deaths Mount

Honduras Establishes Close Ties with China

A Grand Slam for Ireland?

Living In Spain and Social-Democracy

USA Censorship Act to Kill Disinformation

Flying Fortresses and Nuclear Threat

Universal Criticism Asylum Threshold EU Fortress

Occasional Series