industrial inputs

"...instead a consequence of the fact that the immediate object of food production is not human sustenance and well-being, but the growth of profits...it is no accident that the food industry is the second most profitable one in the united states, following pharmaceuticals." fred magdoff._______________"encouraging the use of green revolution technologies, these rural assistance projects (1) made small-holders further dependent on chemical and biological inputs, and (2) promoted cash-cropping...and livestock production for export, at the expense of basic food cropping." farshad araghi________this stuff always happens when i am out running errands...this time to the grocery store...out in a field there were these two anhydrous ammonia tanks...and these are the "chemical" inputs farshad is talking about and part of the profit generating mechanisms fred is referring to...this is the fertilizer ( heavily dependent on natural gas that fuels the haber-bosch process that isolates the nitrates ) that grows the dense yellow number two corn in such abundance here in the mid-west and is the raw feed stock for "corn-fed" ( and acidotic ) cattle that macdonalds uses and for the extruded hot-pockets and the hfcs in the mountain dew that washes them down...it's also the stuff that causes algae blooms in the gulf of mexico and creates those "dead zones" we read about...and it's one of the inputs that fueled the "green revolution" that has done so much to destroy traditional agriculture in the "third world" and displace and impoverish so many that find their way to slums and shanty towns in mega cities like lagos...bad stuff in my book and utterly unsustainable...the food system is ailing and needs to be recast in a different form...parts will have to stay ( distribution networks for instance ) parts will have to go ( annual monoculture and chemical inputs )and there will be much dissent about what form it should take...climate change and resource depletion will, eventually, push disagreements towards compromise...and it's why i am always trying to work with perennials...somewhere along the line we will all need to get serious. http://www.tannerind.com/anhydrous-msds.html