Billy wrote:
In article ,
Bert Hyman wrote:

In

Billy wrote:

I'm not arguing for local food because it tastes better or because
it's better for you. I'm arguing that we have no choice. In a world
more prone to drought and flood, we need the resilience that comes
with three dozen different crops in one field, not a vast ocean of
corn or soybeans. In a world where warmth spreads pests more
efficiently, we need the resilience of many local varieties and
breeds. And in a world with less oil, we need the kind of small,
mixed farms that can provide their own fertilizer and build their
own
soil.

Who's going to be the person to tell 2/3 of the earth's population
that
they're going to have to starve?

That would be the fossil-fuel, industrial, corporate farmers, waving
their price lists about for people to inspect.

If you have followed the thread, Bert, you would have seen numbers
that
indicate that we are getting diminishing returns from industrial
farming, and industrial farming is based on increasingly expensive
fossil fuels (2200 lbs of coal for 5.5 lbs of nitrogen fertilizer?).

Joel Salatin on his farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, yearly
transforms his pastures into "40,000 pounds of beef, 30,000 pounds of
pork, 10,000 broilers, 1,200 turkeys, 1,000 rabbits, and 35,000 dozen
eggs. This is an astounding cornucopia of food to draw from a hundred
acres of pasture, yet what is perhaps still more astonishing is the
fact
that this pasture will be in no way diminished by the process‹in fact,

it will be the better for it, lusher, more fertile, even springier
underfoot (this thanks to the increased earthworm traffic)."


-----
He grows an inch of topsoil/year.

I believe in the theory "The world is a zero sum gain". If food and
population grows it is at the expense of nature. Predator vs Prey and so
on.
So Joel Salatin grows thousands of pounds of food and improves his soil.
If this true where does he get thousands of pounds of material to go
back into his soil?
Does the amount of rain that falls on his land have as much substance
that leaves his farm in food production? I bet he also buys "lime" and
other soil improving substances as well. If he does buy lime and other
soil improvements, is he really self sustaining? Or are using the term
self sustaining in terms of economics?

While I am posting this, I will download
"Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet"
A book some one recommend on this thread, looks like a good read.

Enjoy Life... Dan Using an iPad