On small farms: The mantra in our industry is "get big or get out." There is just no way to run a small farm anymore without having another job and you might still go bankrupt. To nonfarmers who protest higher food bills, please realize that most of that cost is in labor and overhead - it is certainly not going to the farmer, who continues to get pricing for his crops that he got 40 years ago. That would not be acceptable to an office worker so nobody should expect it of a farmer, but they do.
On obesity: I kept a comment made by Mary Jane Minkin at Yale School of Medicine that said "the most important medical breakthrough we could make is to control our obesity epidemic. Until we do, we have no chance of NOT bankrupting the health care system because everything is caused by obesity." She said this in April 2011. The powers in control shrugged. And so here we are, 14 years later, at the brink.
On citizenship responsibility: It is time to require those in power to do their jobs to the satisfaction of the public or be fired. And the public needs to be more aware of what is going on, for their future and that of their children.
Elimination of "fat cat intermediary" re transportation, health, infrastructure, energy (vital issues) would improve the ability to compete for small (ecologically sound) farmers (and other small scale producers). Those "fat cat intermediaries" don't add any value so that would benefit everyone.
During the 1970s the soil depletion issue (trace elements) already was known in China so humanure was used in the fields. Results were disastrous: crops developed tumors due to "medicines" in humanure. Yet it could be part of the solution, depending on MAHA success and investment in a dual sewer system.
All trace elements are contained in the ocean, so in theory it would be possible to engineer a type of mangrove forest that accumulates them, to be harvested as supplement for standard fertilizer. Such forests would have other advantages as well (coastal protection, climate etc.).
On small farms: The mantra in our industry is "get big or get out." There is just no way to run a small farm anymore without having another job and you might still go bankrupt. To nonfarmers who protest higher food bills, please realize that most of that cost is in labor and overhead - it is certainly not going to the farmer, who continues to get pricing for his crops that he got 40 years ago. That would not be acceptable to an office worker so nobody should expect it of a farmer, but they do.
On obesity: I kept a comment made by Mary Jane Minkin at Yale School of Medicine that said "the most important medical breakthrough we could make is to control our obesity epidemic. Until we do, we have no chance of NOT bankrupting the health care system because everything is caused by obesity." She said this in April 2011. The powers in control shrugged. And so here we are, 14 years later, at the brink.
On citizenship responsibility: It is time to require those in power to do their jobs to the satisfaction of the public or be fired. And the public needs to be more aware of what is going on, for their future and that of their children.
Elimination of "fat cat intermediary" re transportation, health, infrastructure, energy (vital issues) would improve the ability to compete for small (ecologically sound) farmers (and other small scale producers). Those "fat cat intermediaries" don't add any value so that would benefit everyone.
During the 1970s the soil depletion issue (trace elements) already was known in China so humanure was used in the fields. Results were disastrous: crops developed tumors due to "medicines" in humanure. Yet it could be part of the solution, depending on MAHA success and investment in a dual sewer system.
All trace elements are contained in the ocean, so in theory it would be possible to engineer a type of mangrove forest that accumulates them, to be harvested as supplement for standard fertilizer. Such forests would have other advantages as well (coastal protection, climate etc.).