Blegh. Honestly, this article brings me the closest I've been in a while to thinking that Humans, in toto, will deserve to die out. There are a lot of good points, but it's much more swung toward the overly practical, and away from the possible. I do think that it would be good for anyone environmentally active should be taking realities into consideration, but the idea of "you can't change the realities, you just have to deal with them" is sad.
For example: a farm which utilizes insecticides and artificial fertilizers to grow a given amount of crops on ten acres may be far better for the local ecosystem than a farm which uses organic methods but requires twice the land be cleared.
That person has no fucking clue why people got into organic farming to begin with, does s/he? Because yes, half as much land can yield twice as much if artificial fertilizers are used, but that farming practice drains the soil of life and reduces the quality of the food. It's bad for the land. Artificial pesticides are also bad, as they don't discriminate between good bugs and bad, and the bad bugs can adapt to life with those chemicals. Plus, these artificial things tend to remain on the plants and are bad for ingestion by humans.
Other than that, s/he has a lot of very good points. Anyone who is offended needs to stop. They don't have to agree completely (silly either/or people!).
Idealism is all well and good, but you've got to be able to make things work with *ordinary* people.
Education will help with some of it, but the rest of that stuff amounts to "economics is just as real and immutable as chemistry and physics. You don't get to suspend its laws anymore than you do theirs."
Sorry, but *you* need to learn to read past the propaganda for organic farming.
There are ways of farming that *don't* ruin the soil. But are mot organic (and you might want to look into how little even "vertified organic" actually *means* on produce).
"Organic" farming can ruin the soil too. In fact that's *why* "artificial" fertilizers were developed in the first place!
As for pesticides, there's a reason the article mentioned *targeted* pesticides. You actually *can* target a lot of them. And immunity exists for other measures as well.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 08:12 am (UTC)That person has no fucking clue why people got into organic farming to begin with, does s/he? Because yes, half as much land can yield twice as much if artificial fertilizers are used, but that farming practice drains the soil of life and reduces the quality of the food. It's bad for the land. Artificial pesticides are also bad, as they don't discriminate between good bugs and bad, and the bad bugs can adapt to life with those chemicals. Plus, these artificial things tend to remain on the plants and are bad for ingestion by humans.
Other than that, s/he has a lot of very good points. Anyone who is offended needs to stop. They don't have to agree completely (silly either/or people!).
no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 09:26 pm (UTC)Idealism is all well and good, but you've got to be able to make things work with *ordinary* people.
Education will help with some of it, but the rest of that stuff amounts to "economics is just as real and immutable as chemistry and physics. You don't get to suspend its laws anymore than you do theirs."
no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 09:30 pm (UTC)There are ways of farming that *don't* ruin the soil. But are mot organic (and you might want to look into how little even "vertified organic" actually *means* on produce).
"Organic" farming can ruin the soil too. In fact that's *why* "artificial" fertilizers were developed in the first place!
As for pesticides, there's a reason the article mentioned *targeted* pesticides. You actually *can* target a lot of them. And immunity exists for other measures as well.