Scary, third of arable land lost in only 40 years

[NorthernRaider]

Hydroponics has the potential to produce good, basic, nutritious food but does not help the nitrogen cycle or the natural environment except if its done on a large scale we may be able to stop dumping chemicals on the land, but don't forget decent fresh water is becoming an issue itself in many places.

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I feel nothing but abject shame for what my generation has done to the legacy we are leaving my sons generation, we are the first generation in history to leave our kids worse off in all aspects, food, health, wealth, peace, security and environment.

[bigpaul]

Chemicals weren't mentioned when I was at school in the 50s and 60s because most farmers couldn't afford them, back then a 100 acre farm was the size of a normal family farm, now they have thousands of acres and only 1 or 2 people to do the work, and their ground is all over the place, not all in the one location which is why you see tractors trundling along the roads for miles.

[Tartar Horde]

The soil is dead in the vast majority of arable land, and is simply there to support the crops. The crops are fed by fertilisers, and pests kept in check by pesticides. Crop rotation is still practised but has very little to do with feeding those crops or maintaining the health, as this is all done by artificial means. The scary fact is that without this industrial scale agriculture we could not feed the majority of the populaton by "traditional" means. Consider this; for every calorie of food you eat there are ten calories of hydrocarbon "energy" needed to put that food on your plate. The only way we as a species can maintain our high, and ever increasing numbers is to carry on with this form of agriculture, but we all know it is ultimately going to collapse, as you can not have infinate growth in a finite system.

[NorthernRaider]

"as you can not have infinite growth in a finite system" EXACTLY and its compounded by stuff like the negative aspects of automation where upon fewer and fewer workers are needed to produce crops, food, goods , commerce etc and those fewer in numbers are being expected to support more and more unproductive people who they are not related to. Everything from say the EU to the NHS to the Welfare system to Agriculture, to Power generation are seeing the burden / load growing year upon year with any safety margins spare capacity or surplus getting narrower and the damage is heading towards being irreversible.

[bigpaul]

and yet the human race carries on breeding and breeding without a care in the world, one day its all going to come crashing down around their ears, but no of course its not their fault is it?
at one time, the population numbers were controlled by the number of mouths we could feed, now that all gone out the window and we are living way beyond our means.
a time of reckoning is way over due.

[T-oddity]

[bigpaul]

you'll never change the big "agri-businesses" though, its all about profit and bugger the state of the land once they have done with it.

[NorthernRaider]

[Tartar Horde]