Small farms may not be efficient enough to feed the whole world and
taking advantage of economies of scale may well be a responsible and
necessary thing to do in terms of food production, but it is my
understanding that a lot of current big industry Ag practices are
harmful and possibly not sustainable (in terms of environmental cost?)
in the long run -- and not just the meat production parts..

Hey Mom, you got anything to say, or any resources to point us to on
the sustainability of big-industry Ag, specifically wrt what Kevin
points out below about the efficiency of factory farming?

B

On 1/26/07, Kevin Lochner   wrote:
> can we get a consensus on factory farming in general?  There was an
> article in the economist last month making the case that local farming and
> organic farming cost the world more because they don't take advantage of
> economy of scale and efficient production, essentially making them more
> wasteful.  For example, taken to the extreme, small farms may not be
> able to feed the whole world at some point in the future.  I'll dig it up
> and try to post it somewhere, but thought I'd solicit thoughts in the
> meantime.  (this does not include erica's "eating down the food chain"
> idea, which clearly is the more enviro-friendly option).
>
>
> On Fri, 26 Jan 2007, Daniel Reeves wrote:
>
> > I definitely agree that that's an upper bound!
> > Can we tighten it a bit?
> > For example, no fair counting medical costs -- you'll pay for those
yourself
> > later.
> >
> > (That website really doesn't deserve to be looked at.  55 square feet of
> > rainforest lost per hamburger?  Puh-leez.)
> >
> > New proposal: set aside for an environmental charity an amount equal to
what
> > you spend on environmentally unfriendly products, including factory-farmed
> > animal products.
> >
> > Who's in on that one?
> >
> >
> > --- \/   FROM Erica O'Connor AT 07.01.26 11:10 (Today)   \/ ---
> >
> >> (very) aproximately 100 yootles per hamburger
> >> http://www.spirulinasource.com/earthfoodch7a.html
> >> -Erica
> >>
> >>> I have a proposal:  let's estimate the long term
> >>> environmental cost of
> >>> eating a hamburger (ideas on how solicited -- don't
> >>> say it's impossible,
> >>> we can at least put an upper bound on it) and pledge
> >>> to set aside that
> >>> much money for an environmental charity per
> >>> hamburger (etc) we eat.
> >
> > --
> > http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  search://"Daniel Reeves"
> >
> > "Die?  That's the last thing I'll do!"
> >  -- final words of Lord Palmerston
> >
>