I understand all the arguments for industrial agriculture, but I have yet to fully grasp why industrial agriculture is the reigning champ when it comes to our food system. If there were no other farming alternatives known I could see the extraneous costs of IA as almost justifiable, and the limited products produced as just a simple consequence of trying to feed such a high population. But obviously this is not the only way to farm. McKibben suggests, with convincing numbers, that smaller farms produce more food on all fronts and are more efficient in both an economic and environmental sense. If this is the case, why are smaller farmers pushed to the back burners?
Have small operating farms been left in the dark because the consumer, when it comes down to it, only wants cheap food? I have yet to see a study that shows organic food in the long run is actually more expensive, so why does the "organic" label come with the stereotype of high class fine dining? Why aren't small farms the big powerhouses they should be?
McKibben attempts to answer this question, but his answer is mediocre at best; One paragraph that mentions subsidies, monopolized corporate dealings. His answer? "We have substituted oil for people (pg. 67 of Deep Economy)." Valid answer. Better than mine because I don't even have one. But can it really be as simple as our addiction to oil? On the one hand it may be nice for it to be true because then that means only one major problem to solve. But on the other, what does that make us humans if we are so easily thwarted by one industry? Seems a bit disheartening if you ask me.
So maybe we must look deeper. Yes oil is a major player in this game, but what are the others?
Yes, a very depressing conundrum. About the misperception of organic - it is so frustrating because "organic" has become this specialized, chic market, when in fact there was no such thing as "organic" 50 to 100 years ago because EVERYTHING was organic. There wasn't an alternative - organic is just farming as originally intended, in sync with nature.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I can provide you an answer but I believe that the replacement of humans with oil and machinery has to do with: cheap oil, a mentality of efficiency and mass production, the influence of media and corporate advertising, and of course subsidies. Pollan's description of the transformation of the grassroots organic movement into industrial organic agribusiness provides us with some insight about why small farmers are being monopolized. It appears that the only way to mass produce food on large-scale farms (which people think is necessary in order to feed the American population and do so cheaply) is to switch to mechanized, industrialized methods, at the expense of people, animals, and the planet. For example, Earthbound lettuce could not be produced and shipped on a national scale without the use of mechanized equipment (and fossil fuels) for harvesting, packaging, and shipping.