Say "kaf-o." It's an acronym. It stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. Think of 10,000 cows on a limited amount of land, or 10,000 chickens under roofs, or 10,000 hogs in long barns. Now think of how much waste must be produced by all these animals housed in a small space. Now wonder what they do with the waste. See a problem? You'd probably smell the problem if you lived downwind of any of these operations.
The Environmental Protection Agency is up in arms about these places. Can't say as I blame them. But what is the solution, or solutions? The farmers can't make nearly as good a living on the land they own, as they can by selling it to a developer, so good farmland is being cut up into small home tracts. Those people in those tracts want "clean air", and although they may like the pastoral scene of cows grazing next to them, they don't want to smell them. And those same people want to eat meat, and drink milk. And now they want it to be organic, the way it "used" to be.
The only solution that I can think of, at this time, is to give small farmers a tax break on their land, promote agricultural areas (?), and promote less fertilizer, better farm practices, and better prices for their products. The oil companies get what they want, by upping prices at the pump. We crab about it, but we don't do anything more. If food prices start to rise, we blame everyone and everybody and ask the government to step in, and make drastic changes. Put "caps" on prices, if you will.
Unfortunately we have a cap on milk. This is do, in part, to government subsidies. What if we take away those subsidies, and let milk prices rise to the occasion. Farmers make the same money for their milk at this time, as they did 20 years ago. How would you like to work for the same pay as you did 20 years ago? So of course these people have to find work off the farm, and eventually it all becomes too much work, so they give up the farm. Or they could get so big, the subsidies pay for the farm (like the CAFOs.)
Now there's still the problem of the waste. This can be handled efficiently, in a small operation. This waste, after treatment, can be used as fertillizer for the farm, and off-farm areas. This is done with human waste, and it too is used for fertillizer. In Illinois they have a big waste treatment plant on the south side of Chicago, and rumor had it that the waste was shipped to Southern Ilinois, in tank cars, to reclaim the strip mines down there. I have seen those strip mines before and after, and they are decidedly greener these days.
As for better farming practices, just read "Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. I think I'll leave that as my "class assignment" on Day 114!
The Environmental Protection Agency is up in arms about these places. Can't say as I blame them. But what is the solution, or solutions? The farmers can't make nearly as good a living on the land they own, as they can by selling it to a developer, so good farmland is being cut up into small home tracts. Those people in those tracts want "clean air", and although they may like the pastoral scene of cows grazing next to them, they don't want to smell them. And those same people want to eat meat, and drink milk. And now they want it to be organic, the way it "used" to be.
The only solution that I can think of, at this time, is to give small farmers a tax break on their land, promote agricultural areas (?), and promote less fertilizer, better farm practices, and better prices for their products. The oil companies get what they want, by upping prices at the pump. We crab about it, but we don't do anything more. If food prices start to rise, we blame everyone and everybody and ask the government to step in, and make drastic changes. Put "caps" on prices, if you will.
Unfortunately we have a cap on milk. This is do, in part, to government subsidies. What if we take away those subsidies, and let milk prices rise to the occasion. Farmers make the same money for their milk at this time, as they did 20 years ago. How would you like to work for the same pay as you did 20 years ago? So of course these people have to find work off the farm, and eventually it all becomes too much work, so they give up the farm. Or they could get so big, the subsidies pay for the farm (like the CAFOs.)
Now there's still the problem of the waste. This can be handled efficiently, in a small operation. This waste, after treatment, can be used as fertillizer for the farm, and off-farm areas. This is done with human waste, and it too is used for fertillizer. In Illinois they have a big waste treatment plant on the south side of Chicago, and rumor had it that the waste was shipped to Southern Ilinois, in tank cars, to reclaim the strip mines down there. I have seen those strip mines before and after, and they are decidedly greener these days.
As for better farming practices, just read "Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan. I think I'll leave that as my "class assignment" on Day 114!
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