write a dialog between two famers taking about their crops
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This Business of Farming
Dialogue With a Farmer, Part Two
My conversation with Brent over future world farm practices
Mike Wilson | Jun 01, 2010
If you checked out last week's blog, you'll see I'm in the middle of a conversation with Brent Swartzendruber, a farmer from Henderson, Neb. We've been debating the merits of conventional farming vs. other methods, and what will be sustainable and still feed the world in years to come. Here's the latest:
Mike,
I grant that there are some who want to see agriculture go back to a Norman Rockwell painting as a way of alleviating anxiety about our over-consumptive lifestyles in general. But would you also consider that standard views of Ag are "romantic" in thinking, that we can go on the same as we have? Our system is 100% dependent on fossil fuels from beginning to end. This causes global warming and makes our farm economy very unstable.
Michael Pollan and others do not suggest that production Ag will go away, only that we must stop eating oil. I also think it is "romantic" to suggest that we are the only ones who can feed the world. This too can be "dangerous" and "morally corrupt." The world can feed itself. What gets in the way is warfare, political corruption, and predatory trade practices. Our own overproduction of subsidized crops leads to "dumping" of commodities on other countries that in turn ruins the living of local farmers who cannot compete with "under the cost of production" prices.
The jury is still out on the overall experience of the Green Revolution. Are you aware of the negative effects of the Green Revolution in India? Many, many farmers' lives have been destroyed through indebtedness and a forced reliance on commercial fertilizers and chemicals that have not kept yield high in the long run. Higher yields have not led to less hungry people because larger farms make wealth unattainable for many.
You suggest that other ways of farming will drive up prices and leave people hungry. Did you note the food riots that occurred when oil spiked two years ago? Overproduction by a few does not lead to food security for all. I don't think those who are questioning our current system are trying to drive ag "backwards," but toward a system that is sustainable (as our current track is not).
--Brent