Meat. Grazing animals require not much more than grass and the water that falls out of the sky. No fertilizers, no tractors, and over time they fertilise the soil and lock up carbon beneath the grass. It's a no brainer.
A food supply without fossil fuels worked really well up to 1800 when the human population was less than 1 billion. And it will work really well again when the population is back to less than 1 billion. Until then, you're dreaming and have supplied no data to support your dream. Associated statements like preventing the 6th mass extinction and preventing climate change due to lower ghg production are further dreams. And anyhow, why would anyone support any food system that supports 8.5 billion humans. The plague that is destroying the planet.
Ok. Mr Crib sent me a private reply saying that I was insulting him and I had uninformed accusations. So here goes Mr Crib. My father born in 1914 grew up on a large cattle ranch here in Australia. (We call them cattle stations). In his day the ranch/station carried maybe 500 cattle. There was no electricity, no radio, no telephone,, no refrigeration, no motor car, no electric light. A trip into town by horse & buggy was a once a year over 3 days & 2 nights to get supplies like sugar, flour, salt, tobacco & soap . Once a year the cattle for sale were walked over 7 days into the nearest rail head for transport to the meat works by coal burning trains. Today, after selective clearing and grass seeding by huge diesel powered machines, the ranch/station carries 10,000 cattle. That's a 2,000% increase due to fossil fuels. The cattle are round up with helicopters (aviation fuel), pushed into cattle yards with 4WD's & Quad bikes (diesel & petrol). Then trucked over 500 miles in huge diesel powered road trucks to meat works. There was not a gallon of fuel on the property until the first car was purchased in the 1930's. Now we have two 10,000 litre tanks to run the big machines to keep the land grassed & the property roads usable for the big trucks. So go ahead, and bring the "renewable food" system out here. And we'll be back to carrying 95% less cattle than now (500 head again) . Multiply that by thousands of cattle stations in the Australian outback. Currently, Australia exports enough food (grain plus meat) to feed 60 million people. Large wheat farms down here, tens of thousands of acres, are also highly dependent on diesel. Cut out diesel and nitrate fertiliser made with natural gas & all this disappears. Food produced by renewable energy is possible here. My father did it. But to produce the amount we do today renewably, is a dream. I hope this answers your remark that I am uninformed. And I apologise if my original comment seemed insulting to you. But today's large industrial food production cannot be produced without massive low entropy energy inputs. And that is fossil fuels. Your "renewable food" system might work in small farms with adequate human workers, where it seems you live.... but out here, it's impossible. A dream. Cheers.
Every step we take away from nature we secure our fate and you propose cell culture and vertical farms? Get a grip. We need hoe farmers not fricken biotech. People in cities got to give it up and get their hands in the dirt.
No, I didn't. It was your reading that ignored it. NB "the industrial food system also churns out 30% of the greenhouse gases which heat the Earth - making a major contribution to its own demise."
Renewable food will use vastly less FFs than the current agricultural system, because most food will be produced locally (in cities), and >40 of the Earth will be rewilded, creating a vast natural carbon sink.
Unfortunately "the economy" is the very force that is ripping asunder the Earth's life support system, because money is an infinite fiction and the world is both real and finite.
An Earth Standard Currency is a way of sidestepping the greed-driven system promoted by capitalism, which permits the concentration of wealth by the very few. But without challenging it head-on, as Marxism did.
Meat. Grazing animals require not much more than grass and the water that falls out of the sky. No fertilizers, no tractors, and over time they fertilise the soil and lock up carbon beneath the grass. It's a no brainer.
Very far reaching insights, you have developed here Julian. Gives hope that there can be a change if our hearts are willing. Steven
I am amazed and inspired by this, thank you
Why wreck the place if we don't have to?
A food supply without fossil fuels worked really well up to 1800 when the human population was less than 1 billion. And it will work really well again when the population is back to less than 1 billion. Until then, you're dreaming and have supplied no data to support your dream. Associated statements like preventing the 6th mass extinction and preventing climate change due to lower ghg production are further dreams. And anyhow, why would anyone support any food system that supports 8.5 billion humans. The plague that is destroying the planet.
Ok. Mr Crib sent me a private reply saying that I was insulting him and I had uninformed accusations. So here goes Mr Crib. My father born in 1914 grew up on a large cattle ranch here in Australia. (We call them cattle stations). In his day the ranch/station carried maybe 500 cattle. There was no electricity, no radio, no telephone,, no refrigeration, no motor car, no electric light. A trip into town by horse & buggy was a once a year over 3 days & 2 nights to get supplies like sugar, flour, salt, tobacco & soap . Once a year the cattle for sale were walked over 7 days into the nearest rail head for transport to the meat works by coal burning trains. Today, after selective clearing and grass seeding by huge diesel powered machines, the ranch/station carries 10,000 cattle. That's a 2,000% increase due to fossil fuels. The cattle are round up with helicopters (aviation fuel), pushed into cattle yards with 4WD's & Quad bikes (diesel & petrol). Then trucked over 500 miles in huge diesel powered road trucks to meat works. There was not a gallon of fuel on the property until the first car was purchased in the 1930's. Now we have two 10,000 litre tanks to run the big machines to keep the land grassed & the property roads usable for the big trucks. So go ahead, and bring the "renewable food" system out here. And we'll be back to carrying 95% less cattle than now (500 head again) . Multiply that by thousands of cattle stations in the Australian outback. Currently, Australia exports enough food (grain plus meat) to feed 60 million people. Large wheat farms down here, tens of thousands of acres, are also highly dependent on diesel. Cut out diesel and nitrate fertiliser made with natural gas & all this disappears. Food produced by renewable energy is possible here. My father did it. But to produce the amount we do today renewably, is a dream. I hope this answers your remark that I am uninformed. And I apologise if my original comment seemed insulting to you. But today's large industrial food production cannot be produced without massive low entropy energy inputs. And that is fossil fuels. Your "renewable food" system might work in small farms with adequate human workers, where it seems you live.... but out here, it's impossible. A dream. Cheers.
Every step we take away from nature we secure our fate and you propose cell culture and vertical farms? Get a grip. We need hoe farmers not fricken biotech. People in cities got to give it up and get their hands in the dirt.
Hoe farms are exposed to climate impacts, water scarcity and soil erosion. They destroy themselves. Sentimentality will not feed 10 billion humans.
No they will starve because they forgot how to feed themselves without fossil fuel slaves.
Or they get eaten by others who can't farm...
One day, years ago, my wife spotted a bobcat walking down the aisle in the horse barn. It was a large adult totally bald from mange. She said
“you better kill it, it’s gonna eat your chickens” I said, “it needs them more than me.”
Sure enough the old cat got into my coop and killed more birds than it could eat, it then crawled under a pine and died. I was OK with how it went.
Again I see replacing 'industrial' agriculture- the word you're looking for is animal.
AGH, Julian.
No, I didn't. It was your reading that ignored it. NB "the industrial food system also churns out 30% of the greenhouse gases which heat the Earth - making a major contribution to its own demise."
Renewable food will use vastly less FFs than the current agricultural system, because most food will be produced locally (in cities), and >40 of the Earth will be rewilded, creating a vast natural carbon sink.
Unfortunately "the economy" is the very force that is ripping asunder the Earth's life support system, because money is an infinite fiction and the world is both real and finite.
An Earth Standard Currency is a way of sidestepping the greed-driven system promoted by capitalism, which permits the concentration of wealth by the very few. But without challenging it head-on, as Marxism did.
Capitalism is by no means universal. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/capitalist-countries It is simply the religion of the greedy.
Also, there are viable alternatives: https://cribb.substack.com/p/time-for-an-earth-standard-currency