Healthy Regenerative Lifestyle
Industrial Ag
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― Buckminster Fuller
David Proctor
We may not live on a farm, but we can grow where we live.
Industrial Agriculture
by David Proctor
July 25, 2019
Urban Farm Lifestyle Magazine Published Weekly
When I use to sit and dream about how I wanted to farm, I tried to make that dream adapt to the existing reality.
The existing reality in agriculture, is the infusion of productivity, increasing production and innovation through increased scientific processes and economic charts and calculations.
We have to keep continuing in this path because we have to feed the world!
I had in my plan how to follow this train of thought and make it even more productive. You have to “Get Big or Get Out” if you are in agriculture.
I thought I had it all figured out and all I needed to do was put my plan in action, until a very wise neighbor, who listened to how I wanted to build my farm, asked if I had heard of Joel Salatin? The answer was no, of course.
I have written several articles about the Polyface farm that Joel and his family operate. That is because I realize how wrong my farm business model was. It was totally unsustainable, as is most farming operations in the US and around the world.
My new model embraces inefficiencies in favor of animal and ecological wellbeing. The inefficiencies will be emulating the efficiency of nature to letting a pig be a pig, a cow being a cow and a chicken be a chicken.
I prefer this over some of the grotesque looking, superstar production species, that are being raised in confined quarters, being fed corn and soybeans that are supposed to be feeding the world!
I propose a farming model where instead of the food being a commodity, being sold at commodity prices and then being used as a base ingredient in fake food, to instead have food be food.
Food that is not perfect in appearance, doesn’t have a shelf life measured in half-life, has a unique taste as to the area that it was raised and grown, like wine does.
I know this would be a major disruptor to the commodity markets. The inefficiencies would require more labor, giving more people the opportunity to work. The model would be “Get Small or Get Out”.
Now I know everyone is thinking this would never work, and if it was even tried, the cost of food would go through the roof and there would be rioting in the streets and the apocalypse would be in play. Or would it?
The reason the farmers are being starved out, the ones that have gotten big, is because of overproduction.
This happens when the government gets involved with the interest of large business instead of the farmer.
We have so much subsidized milk production we don’t know what to do with it. You don’t see anyone drinking milk anymore, but you sure do see a lot of pizzas being sold with triple cheese!
Another example is what the “Right to Farm Bill” did to Missouri, it made it so people had to let large confined hog operations in and could not complain about the stench.
Which by the way these hog operations are owned and built by Smithfield Ham which is owned by the Chinese? By the way, nothing smells worse than a confined hog operation!!
When you travel by air, all you see when you fly, and look down, is CFOs (confined feeding operations). These are predominantly chicken operations since that is the cheap meat that we all want. The same holds true for these operations when it comes to smell.
For the animals to live, they have to be given antibiotics and growth hormones, to be sure that enough survive to make it to butcher. But keep in mind these drugs end up in us, causing ill effects in society.
You do not need to fight mother nature to raise and grow food. The best thing you can do for the land is not till it, but put cattle out on it to graze.
I will have my farm someday. You may think that I will change my mind about how I will raise my cattle, but I don’t think so. When you can raise and grow food locally, provide people with food that is good for them and will make them healthy, I think that in itself will be in demand.
I believe we have a bright future in agriculture.
We do not have to fight the system, just build a new one that replaces the old one, even if it is older than the one in place now.
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Just my opinion!
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