Dispatches From the Fields: My ride in a combine

How commodity grain farmers have sown the seeds of their demise 2

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  1. Ken Johnson's avatar

    Ken Johnson Posted 8:58 am
    03 Oct 2008

    Do the math ..."... 300 times more corn on the same amount of land ..." (??)
  2. Pangolin's avatar

    Pangolin Posted 1:22 pm
    03 Oct 2008

    Futile cycling againFor a human system to continue it must be sustainable in both the local ecology and the overall ecology. A system that pulls 300 times the product off the land also pulls 300 times the minerals and organic matter off. Simply in terms of lost mineral ash this is a dead end road.
    Once you add to this the energy cost of building, fueling and maintaining the combines and other farm machinery as well as tractors, plows, drills, harrows, sprayers and pumps and the system is dead.
    Like a guy who's had a dose of polonium stirred into his tea with his sugar is dead. The corpse may walk around for a while but it must fall.

    Put the Carbon Back

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