From Hardscrabble Farmer
Llpoh should have picked a better example of the success of industrialization than agriculture. If eating was simply a matter of producing the highest number of calories from a specific plot of land with the lowest investment of labor regardless of the amount of energy expended to do so, he’d be right. The problem with our current system of agriculture should be obvious to anyone with two eyeballs and heartbeat, but for some reason only the smallest minority of people are able to see the holistic panorama of industrialized agriculture and it’s downstream effects on the population.
Let’s examine some of the issues in greater detail before we decide what makes something successful as opposed to efficient.
Food is more than calories. I’m not a nutritionist or an MD, but I do know that calories are simply a mechanism for delivering energy to an organism, not a measure of nutritive value. If a toddler needed 500 calories a day and was offered a choice between a 500 calorie soft drink or an equal amount of vegetables, meat and fruit, only a sadist would feed the child the soft drink as a steady diet based on cost alone. `A single handful of fresh greens picked right out of the garden brings greater value to the life of a human being than a 2 liter Mountain Dew with ten times the calories.
Humans need better nutrition to live healthier and longer lives. Today we have calories produced by industrialized agriculture with little nutritive value that leave people to live miserable lives filled with preventable illnesses and multiple disabilities directly related to poor diet. The associated costs to re-mediate these problems using pharmaceuticals and overtaxing the healthcare system are never factored in, nor is the cost of lost labor directly related to these failings.
Loss of knowledge. When we began as homesteaders we possessed very limited knowledge regarding the production of food. Most of the lessons learned took years because food production is cyclical in nature and requires years of experience to build any type of knowledge base. These factors include seasonality, hybridization, mortality, fertility, water cycles, morbidity, invasive pests, etc. What America once possessed in the untold millions was generational knowledge of individuals concerning what to plant and when, what breeds proved best for which environments, maximizing the benefits of waste cycles, minimizing erosion and soil loss, water quality and drought prevention- the list is longer than my own life would ever be able to uncover in the time I have left to learn and I am dedicated to the task in a way the vast majority living would ever do.
The problem isn’t that there are too few people left with this knowledge, but that EVERY ONE requires it. I haven’t met anyone yet who doesn’t eat- excluding a couple of breathatarians who strike me as frauds. The whole of the population is entirely dependent on a very, very small minority to satisfy ALL of their nutritive requirements. That is no less of a threat to the future of our civilization than an equally small minority controlling the vast majority of financial resources needed by the rest of the population. For some reason we all seem to count on the benevolence of the food producers to continue turning it out for a fraction of its true value so everyone can benefit.
What happens if, say form example, the elite banker class winds up in control of the last means of agricultural production and no one is left with any land/knowledge or resources to counter that kind of monopolism? Will they continue to sell healthy high end heirloom produce and heritage meats to the hoi polloi or hoard it to themselves and allow us high fructose corn syrup and a low end form of soylent green to keep the masses from starvation at extortionist prices? The near elimination of the knowledge required to maintain sustainable farming practices isn’t something that can be reversed in time to prevent a holomodor on a scale unimaginable to even the most doomy doomers out there.
Soil. I wish I could begin to explain the importance of soil to life. Soil is not an inert anchor for roots, it is one of the most complex ecosystems on Earth. It is the final transition between decay and growth and the damage that industrial agriculture has done to the soils- and by extension the watersheds- is nothing less than catastrophic. That we still produce crops is a testament to the historic health and fertility of North America rather than the efficacy of the industrial model. The volume of soils lost due to erosion, the poisons released into the waters and atmosphere and remaining in the soils as result of pesticides and herbicides, the diseases and disorders, the cancers and obesity, the spent fossil fuels that will never be replaced in order to produce “cheap” food is incalculable.
Soils are created at a rate of inches per millennium and we have exhausted these in time spans of fifty years or less. Once gone they are not replaced for any amount of money or any human effort. The use of NPK since the end of WWII as a means of goosing production worked fine as long as there was soil to use up and unlimited amounts of cheap oil to create these additives. Once the soil is done, once the cost of fossil fuels exceeds the limits of profitably of pulling it out of the ground the era of cheap food is over, forever. The cost of high priced food will only be available for those who can afford it. Our advanced systems of industrialization applied to a natural system was not only short sighted, it was nothing short of an inevitable ELE.
The industrialized agricultural system of the 20th century was one of the greatest mistakes of mankind. Only the most misguided of us would point to it as a triumph of anything other than hubris. The collapse of the debt based economies of the world will be like a summer cold compared to the collapse of the oil based industrial agriculture system, the pancreatic cancer of our species.
HSF –
Just logged in to “like” your post.
You “get it” … and then some!
DaP
Hardscrabble – excellent analysis. I never thought of it that way. If I had to live off of the land, I would die. Gotta do something about that.
A few years ago I started to rethink my food habits. The truth is 80% of what is sold in grocery stores is not real food. While I have found it difficult to give up sweets (seriously, look up sugar addiction) most of my diet is what is grown or was once living. I also try to buy meat that hasn’t been tainted with growth hormones and antibiotics. Footage such as pink slime makes me want to puke. I once watched a documentary called Food, Inc and it drastically changed my perception of food.
HSF,
Hit the nail on the head for the most part. Farming local is making a come back, but the timing may not be in time. We are now a world of Chinese shit consumers who used to be food producers. It has made the chosen few very rich, and ruined a noble (your father said) way of life as a farmer.
Next door to our 7 acres of almonds, we have Hmong (Laos) farmers, who really know how to farm. They farm and sell at the local farmers market. and their fruit stand. They do flowers, and all kinds of seasonal row crops. They rotate the crops and plant 4 or 5 rows of whatever is in season. The Hmongs do this farming the old fashion way, except for having nice expensive walk behind rototillers and drip irrigation. I don’t believe they own the land, and they seem to be rotating workers.
I have started kissing their ass some, giving them boxes of oranges and offering tractor work from my son. The Hmongs have a gold mine of knowledge about gardening. When the SHTF, they will be the survivors and good neighbors to have.
taxSlave,
Get a few chickens and grow boxes. Chicken pens and grow boxes are available through Costco. Trust me, growing your own food will make you sleep better, BECAUSE it is hard work and rewarding!
Stephanie
I’m with ya! ” Food Inc.” should be mandatory footage for our population. “King Corn” is another good one.
Great post HSF!
HSF …..industrialized Farming has been a great blessing to our nation. It freed a lot of people fromthe low level slave labor that was farm work. Especially during w w 11 when so many were able to leave …. the farm.. and work in the war effort. Most never went back to ..the farm… It also has feed millions of people world wide and Americans are some of the best feed people on the planet. We all can get very nutritional food every day if we want. Industrialized Farming along with free market enterprise has given so many choices it’s hard to know what to get sometimes when in a supermarket.
You live in a Romance novel of your own fantasy world. I haven’t the slightest idea why people on this blog turn in a group of cheerleaders when you write something.
bb- like you said, people left the farm which lead to suburban sprawl. Which lead to a boom in real estate followed by a collapse. Now equity groups own American. Yeah, very revolutionary,
HSF,
I asked once before but I don’t know if you saw…
I would love if you wrote about the proliferation of tattooing going on now and how you think it reflects the spiritual condition of the peeps in this country.
Best to you and yours.
It was Michael Ruppert who said “Fifty million attorneys, politicians, or bankers aren’t going to save this country. But 50 million farmers just might.” I believe it. Re-localizing agriculture via small and medium size family farms is THE most important thing America should be doing right now. It’s a national security issue when half your food is shipped and trucked in from other countries. People will take a lot of shit but when they can’t feed their kids the pitchforks come out.
bb-they went from low level slave labor farm work where they could at least feed themselves and produced a REAL product to low level slave labor service work where they need two incomes and even then an EBT card to feed themselves and produce nothing of value.
@BB: You don’t know shit from shinola. Watch “The Jerk” and you’ll get a clue.
@Hardscrabble: I agree; industrialized farming is all about yield and not about quality. I grew up on a 100 acre farm my Dad managed and worked at on weekends since he also worked a union job as a pipefitter. My older brothers took care of the day to day chores. We had fresh everything including milk, eggs, beef, swine, and a acre & a half garden. I wish my parents had decided to keep the farm and hand it down, because I would be there working it today had that been the case.
HSF – I made no comment, best of my knowledge, re the “success” of the industrialization of farming. I said that fifty percent of folks used to be employed in agriculture, and that number is now around 1.5%. I also said that that 1.5% is sufficient to grow food for animals and to also export in large quantities. Those tidbits are facts.
It was used entirely as an analogy with respect to what is to come re manufacturing.
But count me as one who would not like to see the return of 50% of the population to agriculture. And further I think anyone who thinks that an agrarian society is a good thing is an idiot. I suspect you are suggesting there should be a hybrid system – I doubt you plow with a team of horses or cows, and I doubt you have foregone all modern tech. Without the shift from agrarian to industrial those things would have not been possible.
People developed efficient farming mechanisms because there was a need for it. It had unintended consequences. But without the advancement in farming, we would be a backwards third world nation. Life expectancy, advancement in science and tech, etc., would all have suffered incredibly had the change from agrarian to industrial not occurred.
It seems that, via your opening statement, and your closing about “Only the most misguided of us would point to it as a triumph of anything other than hubris”, I am linked in those two comments.
Once before I went apeshit when I thought you had linked me to stuff I had not in fact said. That was a misunderstanding, so I am absolutely giving you the benefit of the doubt this time, as you deserve it.
But I strongly urge you to cease putting words in my mouth, and to take more care, especially in making links that I may perceive as applying to me.
I am more than capable of speaking for myself, and additionally can even put my foot in my mouth on many an occasion.
Kad above says half of the food consumed in the US is imported.
And it 100% illustrates the problem I am having with the site at the moment.
People want to believe a certain narrative, and to hell with the facts. They make up facts to suit the narrative, and abuse those who post the facts.
And the fact in this case is that only 17% of the US’s food is imported. Take away seafood, and the percentage drops markedly. After seafood, the next greatest is fresh produce. Fresh produce is a worry, in the scheme of things. So, avoid seafood, and be carefully re fresh produce, and you are likely to avoid the majority of imported food.
But the US exports vastly more than it imports.
“American farmers export 45 percent of their wheat, 34 percent of their soybeans, 71 percent of their almonds, and more than 60 percent of their sunflower oil.”
“Especially during w w 11 …” ————- bb
bb, aka village idiot, thinks there were ELEVEN world wars. Imagine that.
Stuck – bb is about my only support (I think siete likes me , too.) these days. Leave him alone. He is my buddy.
SSS and I generally agree. But he is fickle – one mis-step and he is on you like a fly on stink.
Llpoh-
Not sure why you think I am putting words into your mouth or making a personal dig when I was clearly talking about industrial model consumer societies at large. We all wear the hubris label in this age, myself included.
What you said got me to thinking and what you said specifically was-
“Farming became more efficient. No longer do fifty percent of people need to farm. 1.5 percent can do what 50% used to, plus grow feed for animals plus export food.”
That is true, but at what cost?
My response was on the misapplication of industrial efficiency to natural processes and the consequences that are not reflected in the economic models. If global or national industrial consumer systems fail due to resource depletion, economic collapse, war, natural disasters, etc. almost all of us would make due without the newest I-phone or HDTV. When it comes to food the converse is true. Virtually everyone is now completely dependent on a statistically insignificant portion of the population to feed them, something they cannot do without for more than a few weeks.
I thought about this later when I was outside moving snow looking at a dwindling hay supply and our herd chewing cud in the sunshine. Industry is the offspring of agriculture. The entire industrial era was defined by the inventions and innovations of men who were born and raised on farms- Whitney, Edison, Ford, McCormick, Howe, Deering- Unfortunately it appears that industry will commit paracide on that fertile ground from where it first sprung.
hsf – thanks.
You said “Llpoh should have picked a better example of the success of industrialization than agriculture.” Seems to me that says I hailed it as a success. In fact, all I did was use it as an example re what happens when an industry becomes more efficient. And modern agriculture certainly became more efficient. There were great unintended consequence, as you rightly point out.
llpoh –
What allowed the reduction of people involved in farming was one thing – cheap energy.
A good chunk of your calories on the plate are courtesy of (for the moment, and passing) easily extracted gas and liquid petroleum fuels.
Fertilizer price/availability is heavily sensitive to NG price availability. Industrial scale planting, tilling, harvesting and processing are utterly dependent upon liquid fuels.
Like it or not, you are eating oil.
I have spent wayyy too much time on a tractor and combine to wax rhapsodic about the “good ‘ol days”. BUT – – you either figure out how to get some food by the sweat of your brow or you are going to get pretty slim in the not too distant future.
HSF has his eye on the ball. Not quite up to Salatin’s league yet but I surmise that is only because he got a late start.
bb –
What you understand about food and the ecology/economy that provides it is a disgrace. I sincerely doubt that you would know a nutritious meal if it reared up and bit you in the ass.
Peace out,
DaP
Diploma mill professor , my grandparents owned a farm so I learned a little bit about growing tobacco. I now wish they would have kept it and handed it down to us grandkids.
Stucky ,go masturbate
HSF ,it’s ok being in your own Romance novel. Like it’s ok to have an imaginary friend.
Lipoh ,I do like you and your thinking about business.
Westcoaster , you wish your parents would have left you the farm. I wish my grandparents would left their farm to one of us grandkids. They grew mostly tobacco . Later soybeans. I would be there right now if I could. Now that land has hit the sky in terms of price. I couldn’t afford it in 10 life times.Has 3 lakes on the property fully stocked . I hate thinking about what could have been.
hsf, I know a kindred spirit for you. An engineer I used to work with who moved back to rural ohio and started a dairy plant based on a different model. http://www.snowvillecreamery.com
Bb – if you keep at it, Bea is gonna take over as village idiot.
Your comments of late have been good. I am reading them again. Not everyone will love you, and that is fine. Keep it up.
There are so many thoughts I have on this post, it is hard to get them straight in my head, much less get them down in writing, but here goes:
– I said something similar in an earlier post about the importance of soil. This cannot be overstated. Life begins in the oceans and in the soil. Soil depletion/erosion/corruption coupled with ocean acidity/pollution/radiation are far more dangerous environmental issues/impending disaster that climate change could ever dream of being even if its most avid pundits were correct.
– Tricking nature never works out in the long run. Take corn subsidies as one example of many. The govt pays corn growers to grow WAY more corn than the market could bear. To get rid of it, we started to feed it to cows, who don’t digest it well and beef quality declines…still too much corn, so we feed it to people (HFCS), certainly one major factor in obesity ebidemic…still too much so we start feeding it to cars, idiocy; is the EROEI even positive? I doubt it, when all factors are considered.
– Industrial Agriculture relies entirely on oil. Cheap oil has led to an exponential increase of human population over the past 150 years ( 7 billion today). This is the scariest exponential chart of all, especially when one considers how all such growth curves end. This is nobody’s fault (none of us asked to be born and all of us want to survive, thrive and reproduce) but it is not a little terrifying. Peak Oil is a real thing, but it is misconceived by nearly everyone. It is not a point in time, it is an epoch, an ugly game that plays out of a couple of generations. No one can pinpoint where it began nor where it will end, but it will necessitate the collapse of the exponential population growth curve, What I just wrote sound horrible and cold, even to me, but it also sounds true.
– I read, perhaps here, perhaps on a similar site, that Cuba is the most sustainable developed country on earth. This is because they lost their only steady supply of oil when the Soviet Union fell. The government (surprisingly) did the right thing and not only lifted zoning laws which limited use of many properties for agricultural purposes, but actually encouraged citizens to grow whatever food they could, wherever they could. It took decades and was probably not a pleasant process, but they went from a nation of industrialized, centralized agriculture to one of local agriculture. I don’t want to simply praise Cuba, I have never been there and can’t speak to how life actually is there, but more to make the broader point that people will figure things out if the govt simply gets out of their way.
That’s all I can think of for right now.