Rich Molini wrote:
>
> Hal,
> I have had to keep a herd alive during a blizzard, but I certainly
> don't believe in employing genetic engineering, antibiotics, or hormones
> to assist me. Herds die because we create an unsuitable artificial
> environment for them. Think of all cattle that were lost in the Dakotas
> this last year. If our land grant institutions would re-educate our
> ranchers that wind breaks or agroforestry barns are necessary to plan
> for the worst then nobody loses. Unfortunately, ranchers are told to
> intensively graze and feed in mega-lots because that is what
> agrichembusiness wants. Ship corn from the midwest when we should be
> growing real food. Production in the hands of a few is much easier for
> them to control, exploit and afford them a tremendous return on
> investment. They need control from animal inception to slaughter. I'm
> not saying they're bad people but rather collectively they make very bad
> decisions based on the wrong motives like market share.
> Hell, I'm not advocating everyone return to draft horses either.
> I'm merely requesting a little sanity. I use fossil fuels, just not for
> fertilizer and herbicides. The world can be fed without them and GMOs.
> It can be fed without confined feeding. Organic sustainable farming is
> not mired in 1950. We use high tech, but not high tech biocides. We
> simply reject " magic bullets" to solve problems that agrichembusiness
> themselves define and have usually created.
> Sure, we temporarily control natural forces when we put up a levy,
> breakwater, jetty, spray Command or Prowl,etc. The forces of the earth
> have the final words, but most dollars don't have ears or refuse to
> listen. We are not listening very well when we take a gene out of a hog
> and put it in a plant. How many youngster do you know would say " When I
> grow up I want to do research to find ways to stop photosynthesis in
> plants or I want to find ways to indiscriminately kill living organisms
> like honey bees". The people that engage in this lunacy set us all, not
> just themselves, up for eventual disaster. Let us get back to
> coexistence because profit seeking out of control only spurs more profit
> seeking.
> Later, Rich
>
> Hal Hamilton wrote:
> >
> > Rich, If you've ever had to keep a bunch of livestock
> > healthy through a blizzard, you want all the help you can
> > get-barns, heaters, tractors that start, etc.. I'm all for
> > coexisting with natural systems, but we are in fact
> > participants in a "civilization" that is a long way from
> > simple coexistence. We're managers of natural forces, for
> > better or worse. We need more than science to understand,
> > perhaps intuit is a better word, natural systems. We need
> > to be respectful and live within limits. But we are also
> > responsible.
> >
> > Also, just to be a little more argumentative,
> > profit-seeking spurs exploitation and it spurs creative
> > hard work.
> >
> > I guess I'm primarily arguing against overly simplistic
> > diagnoses of our condition. Hal
> >
> > Hal Hamilton
> > Center for Sustainable Systems
> > 433 Chestnut St., Berea KY 40403
> > Phone: (606) 986-5336
> > Fax: (606) 986-1299
> > Hhamilton@centerss.org
> >
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