Thread: Eat less meat
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Default Eat less meat

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:58:31 -0000, "pearl" >
wrote:

>"( _ /)" > wrote in message ...
>> On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:30:29 -0000, "Buddenbrooks" >
>> wrote:

>
>> >It will be interesting to see what the coming credit crunch driven downturn
>> >in the economy does to people's views as jobs disappear and people realize that
>> >keeping the worlds economy going and reducing emissions is not going to be
>> >easy.

>>
>> You are sort of missing the point. The global economy as we know it is
>> completely unsustainable, wasteful and destructive short cut to
>> destruction. The sooner we get rid of the idiocy of a material society
>> the better.
>>
>> Then of course everything else will fall in to place.

>
>'Enlightened Agriculture
>
>"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to maintain their reputation
>and social standing, never can bring about reform. Those who are really in
>earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation."
>Susan B. Anthony
>
>'Crisis and opportunity in North American agriculture' John Ikerd
>Emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of
>Missouri
>
>[extracts only, as selected by nlpwessex - original article presented at
>a farm conference, "Recapturing Wealth on the Canadian Prairies,"
>Brandon, Manitoba, October 26-27, 2000 - full copy available at
>http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?recid=376 ]
>
> ......In essence, as agriculture moves from competitive capitalism to
>corporatism, it changes from a market economy to "central planned"
>economy. Central planning didn't work for the Communists, and it won't
>work for the corporations. The problem wasn't that the Communists
>weren't smart enough or that their computers weren't large enough.
>Central planning is a fundamentally wrong-headed approach to managing
>an economy - for corporations as well as governments. The corporate
>system of food production will prove to be fundamentally incapable of
>meeting the needs of the people. Its emergence as the dominant system,
>therefore, represents a prime opportunity for an alternative to corporate
>central planning, to create an agriculture that will truly meet the needs of
>the people of an enlightened society.
>
>As society becomes more enlightened, we are beginning to realize that
>we are destroying our natural environment in the process of trying to
>produce cheap food. We are mining the soil through erosion and
>depletion of its natural product in the process of maximizing production
>and minimizing dollar and cent costs of production. We are polluting
>our streams and groundwater with residues from the pesticides and
>commercial fertilizers necessary for large-scale, specialized industrial
>crop production and with wastes from giant confinement animal feeding
>factories. We are destroying the genetic diversity, both below and
>above the soil that is necessary to support nature's means of capturing
>and transforming solar energy into energy for human bodies.
>
>As society becomes more enlightened, we are beginning to realize that
>we are destroying the social fabric of society in the process of trying
>to make agriculture more efficient. We are destroying opportunities for
>people to lead productive, successful lives. We are turning thinking,
>innovative, creative farmers into tractor drivers and hog house janitors.
>There is dignity in all types of work, but all people should have
>opportunities to express their full human potential. Consolidation of
>decision making concentrates the opportunities among the privileged
>few while leaving the many without hope for a rewarding future.
>Industrial specialization also tends to separate people within families,
>within communities, and within nations. We are just beginning to
>realize that industrialization destroys the human relationships needed
>to support a civilized society. The outdated economics that supports
>agricultural industrialization is fundamentally incapable of dealing
>effectively with either the environmental or social challenges of today.
>In economics, the environment and society are external or outside of
>the decision making process - something that may impact or be
>impacted by decisions but not part of the process. In reality, the
>economy, environment, and society all are parts of the same inseparable
>whole. Society needs a more enlightened system of decision-making -
>one capable of integrating economic, ecological, and social decisions.
>We need a "new" approach to farming in North America..... (....)
>
>Pursuit of self-interests is an inherent aspect of being human. But,
>people, by nature, do not pursue only their narrow, individual or
>personal self-interest. It's also within the inherent nature of people to
>care about other people and to care of the earth. People are perfectly
>capable of rising above selfishness and greed to pursue a higher
>concept of self-interest - a self-interest that values relationships with
>other people and stewardship of the earth as important dimensions
>of one's self-interests.


Seems on Usenet we have an unusual gathering of bigots then,as caring
and sharing is certainly a minority sport here.

>This higher self-interest includes our narrow self-interest (personal,
>individual concerns), but it also includes interests that we share with
>others (relationship, community, and social concerns) and interests
>that are purely altruistic (ethics and moral concerns). All three
>contribute to our well being or quality of life. Each contributes to a
>higher sense of quality of life - explicitly recognizing that each of us
>individually is but a part of the whole of society, which in turn must
>conform to some higher order or code of natural law....
>
>....Admittedly, the new American farm will require a lot more knowledge,
>understanding, and thinking than does farming by industrial methods.
>However, any future occupation offering an opportunity for a decent
>living will require people to use their minds. The days when someone
>could earn a good living by the sweat of their brow are in the past.
>There will be plenty of innovative, creative, hard working people to
>operate the new American farms, once the real possibility for a more
>desirable quality of life in farming - economically, socially, and ethically -
>becomes widely known....
>
>....We, the people, currently control everything that needs to be changed
>in order to build a more sustainable, higher quality of life, as individuals
>as well as for society as a whole. The economy is a creation of people -
>it is not some sacred, unchangeable set of natural laws. People created
>the current economic system and people can change it. The corporation
>does not exist by some right or some decree from God. People created
>corporations and they exist at the discretion of people. Each corporation
>has a charter, which once obligated it to operate for the good of the public.
>We the people can revoke those charters, even if we have to amend the
>constitution to do it. We can control or abolish corporatism and we can
>shape our economy to meet the needs of people....
>
>One by one, as we find the courage to demand something better, we will
>change the world for the better. Susan B. Anthony, the champion of
>voting rights for women in the US once said, "Cautious, careful people,
>always casting about to maintain their reputation and social standing,
>never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest must be
>willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation." It takes
>courage to bring about change. But Margaret Mead, an award winning
>cultural anthropologist, once said, "Never doubt that a small group of
>thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it's the only
>thing that ever has." As each of us finds the courage to change our
>selves and to influence our little piece of the world, we can change the
>world. Indeed, this is the only thing that ever can.
>
>John Ikerd can be reached at [..]
>Full article at: http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?recid=376
>
>1999 University of Missouri Report to the US National Farmers Union,
>'CONSOLIDATION IN THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SYSTEM'
>- pdf format http://www.nfu.org/images/heffernan_1999.pdf
>[extract below]
>
>".....to understand the global food system, one must understand the
>operations of the major global firms such as Cargill, ADM, and ConAgra http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...ents/scats.htm .
>....Today
>the system is becoming much more complex starting with involvement in
>biotechnology, extending through production, and ending with highly
>processed food. Increasingly, these firms are developing a variety of
>different alliances with other players in the system..... We will use the
>concept 'cluster of firms' to represent these new economic arrangements.
>
>.....In a food chain cluster, the food product is passed along from stage
>to stage, but ownership never changes and neither does the location of
>the decision-making. Starting with the intellectual property rights that
>governments give to the biotechnology firms, the food product always
>remains the property of a firm or cluster of firms. The farmer becomes
>a grower, providing the labor and often some of the capital, but never
>owning the product as it moves through the food system and never
>making the major management decisions."
>
> 'CONSOLIDATION IN FOOD RETAILING AND DAIRY:
>Implications for Farmers and Consumers in a Global Food System',
>Report to National Farmers Union, Jan 2001, University of Missouri
>http://www.nfu.org/index.cfm?categor...e=issues&id=67
>
>UK farmers being led to US-style GM slavery
>http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...dSainsbury.htm
>
>"Farmers will be given just enough to keep them interested in growing
>the crops, but no more. And GM companies and food processors,
>will say very clearly how they want the growers to grow the crops."
>Friedrich Vogel, head of BASF's crop protection business
>(Farmers Weekly 6 November 1998)
>
>Disease and pestilence hits Missouri as GM soy expands
>http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...risoybeans.htm
>..
>http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex...griculture.htm
>


That can now be changed to 'Crisis and opportunity in global
agriculture'