"pearl", after considering the fact you're from Ireland it has
come to mind that maybe you've been more honestly ignorant
than intentionally dishonest in regards to the number of deaths
associated with rice production. If you're not familiar with areas
of the world where life is as varied and abundant as it is in the
area where diderot farms, MAYBE your reaction to the facts
he presented are based on an inability to comprehend much
less appreciate how abundant life is in some places. I now
apologise for accusing you of dishonesty in this regard IF and
only if you were truly and honestly ignorant about the abundance
of life in his region, and really could not comprehend or believe
what he generously took his time to explain. And if that was the
case with you, you *should* now finally have some clue what he
was telling us when he explained that:

"- we manage the whole area (larger than just the farms) is a pretty
natural fashion and we have a lot of wildlife. the number of deaths is,
at least, partially a function of total area population. we could
reduce the number of visible deaths by flogging the ecology, but we
prefer life and cycle-of-life over a sterile monoculture.

- every farming environment has a different mix of animals and the
largest number and largest variety, both, will be found in
semi-tropical, mixed ecology lands like we have. monocultures will have
the smallest numbers and the smallest numbers of species. the numbers i
have presented hold true in the gulf-coastal plains for machine-farmed
organic rice and may well vary in california and arkansas."