Month: November 2018

We knew the world population will grow in number.
We knew the world will need more food sustain them.
We knew our land and water to grow food is limited.

We knew this 50+ years ago, and we developed improved agricultural and animal farming techniques to increase the yield and profitability. Without continued deforestation and buildup of further unstainable methods of food growth our options seem limited. Unless we become creative and make decisions that are contrary to methods we have adopted over the last several decades. Our oceans, polluted by trash, pesticides and animal waste runoff/spillage are warming, rising & dying.

We know that arguably between 9% & 14% of the man-made greenhouse gases come from the industrial animal production (Concentrated Animal Farming Operations (CAFO)). This requires 160 times the land and 8 times the water per calorie, compared to vegetables and grains. Eating less beef is part of the solution. Also, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published in October warned of catastrophic consequences—food shortages, worsening poverty, and the destruction of island nations by rising seas—as soon as 2040 if greenhouse gas emissions persist at their current rate.

Now, you may agree or disagree on one or more of these items. We cannot do anything we want with our trash, water and land without doing it safely, intelligently and restoring what we take. You will have farmer and GMO advocates like Kevin Folta, Jennie Schmidt and Erin Fitzgerald that will tell you with bias, that farmers are doing their best and the GMO is necessary for the future. I would I agree, with nuance disagreement and careful review of the GMO efforts. But, they are doing their best to support their families and those whom they report in an industry that has been conformed to a separate production industry (Animal Ag and Food Additives). Their role is important and not an easy one, where future will require a change from the past.

Advocates such as these and many others should be considering alternatives where they can sustain the human being and the earth without continuous overuse and more so, misuse of all our resources. Perhaps considering the population of 9 billion by 2050.

One attempt to create a sustainable and soil payback effort is the Land Institute, an ecologically focused agricultural research group in Kansas. They selectively bred wheatgrass to create a variety with better yield, seed size, and disease resistance that it is calling Kernza.  Kernza has a 10-foot root system and produces grain for up to five years. Standard wheat, by comparison, produces grain for just one year, and its roots are less than half the length.

We know what we knew.
We know more of what we knew.
We know the big picture.

Let’s do what we need to do.

According to Harvard University; “From Corgis to Corn” history tells us the first GMO was about 32,000 years ago with the selective breeding of the canine. Slowly forward to around 7800 B.C. there is reference to wheat, bananas and corn… to be larger. Recently in the 1970’s Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen cut out part of one organism and paste it into another (antibiotic resistance one had to another that did not). Thus began the science of the GMO and the Pro/Anti debate.

Organic Farming; Wikipedia defines as “an alternative agricultural system which originated early in the 20th century”. And at the same time described as “…traditional farming, now considered to be “organic farming”” before there were inorganic growing methods. Many will say the organic growing techniques will fall short considering the increases in global population.

How the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is directly related to the GMO/Organic discussion.
• 94.4 million Cattle in the U.S. (Beef, Dairy & Calves)
• 2 Billion Chickens in the U.S.
• 89.1 million corn acres planted in 2018 (See USDA)
• 46% of the corn goes to feed the cattle (down) (another 43% to fuel and exports)
• 88.9 million acres of soybean harvest is forecast in 2018 (See USDA)
• 80-90 percent of U.S. water consumption is in agriculture
• 50 million acres (2012) crop/pasture lands irrigated

Ok, my point. 97% of the farms in the United States are “family owned”. In turn I would suspect close to the same percentage of those families are owned by a company, corporation or conglomerate of some kind. They provide a service, taking instructions, the risk and little reward in comparison to the hard work and effort it takes to fulfill the needs of their owners.

I know, my point. Anyway, if you consider the 44.5 million acres and distribute them as equally as possible throughout the same farming communities and counties in the U.S. Then repurpose them with organic, highly proven and nutritious GMO farm to table foods. The answer is not us versus them, democrat vs. republican, Organic versus Genetically Modified.

The construct of local communities deepening in their relationships with their neighbors and working together. A feeling that is been disappearing and disparaging our country slowly for decades not. It’s not fair… right? In some sense no its not. We trusted, went on with our lives, growing up, becoming parents… then still gradually (not in retrospect) we started seeing our loved ones die from unnatural causes, and our owners dissuade and persuade to get their way.