I dont have time to clear it all up for you Robert; I use the term
'homeopathic' in an allegorical fashion, and you take it literally,
ignoring my reference to how few molecules of organo-phosphates it takes
to screw up development.
Be that as it may, let this be an example of the kind of opportunity
which awaits young people who are more plugged into the zeitgeist than
you are to profit by being more adaptable and innovative in land use.
To you, plowing is *work*; you always did more than you wanted to. But
consider 'Life in a Midieval Village', taken from the 13th century court
records of an obscure out of the way hamlet... whose court records only
survived because all the armies passing in all the wars and revolutions
happened to miss them.
Anyway; just like a town owns a snowplow, so this place owned a team of
oxen and plowed the commons with it every year. But- rather than have
just one dude spend all his time bored out of his skull doing it, they
let all the dudes in the village have a crack at it, and it becomes a
game and an excuse for a festival. So what if you can plow 10 acres an
hour- they plow 10 acres and it is *fun*.
I bet, were we to ask on this thread, if there were guys who live in
cities now, if they'd like to come out on a weekend for the plowing,
there'd be plenty of dudes who'd jump at the chance. Not even Mexicans
can work for *nothing*. Will illegals wait for a share of the harvest?
So- which system here, agribusiness or organic [as those involved choose
to define it, not as extreme as you define it] has the lower cost of
operations? You havta sell to the mill, ADM, the barge/rail shippers,
etc, they spend a day in the country, and rather than dead heading, go
back to town with a car full of agricultural output.
Ultimately, it dont matter what you think or I think; the Almighty
Dollar will go with the system that delivers what people want at the
lowest cost and highest personal rewards. The time urbanites now spend
on the treadmill in the gym could be spent in the fields doing something
useful, and while they have to pay for the former exercise, they get
paid, albeit without much cash, but in self satisfaction gratifying a
lot of instincts people have for the land and the agrarian system we
have evolved from over the last 10,000 years.
I'm sure some agribusiness will go on as it has for years yet. but the
big money in it has already been made, and consumers have looked at the
same data you refer to, as well as some you'd rather not see, and chosen
in ever greater numbers to buy what they regard as organic. It may be
that they are all wrong, and it is all bullschitt like you say. But so
what? that's where the money has always been.
