Found this nugget and thought it framed the issue nicely.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentaries/202778751.html





Imo, its heartening to know that farmer's markets are still alive and well in some parts of the country.

And also a shameless plug to help out organic farmers if you are so inclined

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/president-obama-dont-let-usda-undermine-governance-and-integrity-organic-food-and-agriculture/9q8kG08S

Organic is a rich man's luxury. The vast majority of people survive on the wonders of GMO and modern agriculture.

To criticize responsibly you need to have a replacement ready, we are never going back to the age of starvation.

Its a valid counter point, but I also feel people do have options that they don't consider. And also the fact that starvation will always exist. I personally ran events to distribute food and supplies among homeless individuals. In our area, upwards of 50% of them didn't even want our help. I think some people simply don't want to be helped regardless of how many chances you offer them.

People can choose to subsist at a lower than optimal standard of living, living where consumer choices don't include omnipresent luxuries like big houses, computers, televisions, children. and smart phones. Many people often choose these luxuries over those that promise a more long term benefit, better investments like food that doesn't slowly lower their standard of living over time and also for future generations.

i've heard of some claims about pushing towards vegetarianism to better feed the world as meat is an inefficient use of grain and if more people eat meat we have substantially less to feed everyone with

fairly effective vegetarian propaganda imo

This post was edited by duffman316 on Aug 11 2014 02:27pm

Yes it should be. What isn't is factory farming.



effective and true

centralized factory farms are not sustainable. Localized community farms are. That's where the future is going or people are going to starve.

This is really not true.

First, organic is a farming method that is easily deployed and even the UN FAO has stated that localized organic farming is the only way to sustainably feed the world. The main factors on cost are demand, simple branding, and artificially low supply. If there were a community controlled small organic farm around every street corner, cost would diminish into almost nothing.

Second, the vast majority of GMO crops (corn and soy make up the majority by quite a bit) are not being used as staple foods. Most are being used to create ethanol or going to animal feed. If you're referring to Borlaug's dwarf wheat, that does not fit into the category of transgenics or genetic engineering, it's an enhanced conventional breed.

And modern capitalist agriculture is a root cause of starvation. It pushes farmers into growing cash crops while people all around are starving to death, ruins the land, and destroys economic competition and eventually farmers in poor nations, which leads to even more starvation.

This post was edited by inkanddagger on Aug 11 2014 07:18pm

Vouch that

In simple terms, it takes like 5 pounds of vegetables to make 1 pound of edible meat.

Human society will be post-food soon enough for a bland future.