Quote:
There is a disconnect here....the term CAFO's is so easy to slam, but within that word, you ARE pointing to American farmers. It's easy to say Montsano rules the world, but when you get down to it, and form an understanding of what a CAFO is and who is registered as a CAFO operator, well, they ARE American farmers, the good ol' boys, the folks with Centennial signs in front of the house that show this farm has been operated by the same family for over 100 years.
I personally grew up with many of these folks, and know many more, and the registered CAFO list here in MI is littered with names of folks I could describe to you in detail, because I KNOW who they are. I've been on their property, they've been on ours, and when the idyllic image of a sun-beaten, dirt-under-the-nails farmer in a beat up Ford thought to portray the "little guy", well, you just described the guys I know who have operations that are registered CAFO's.
Are some large operations run in a shoddy manner? Yes. Are all of them? NO. Does the word "Incorporated" mean some fat cat somewhere else is running the show? NO. (I grew up on a small non-CAFO horse farm that was "Incorporated", it's a tax/liability label. There were three people involved - my parents and the trainer.)
There are little pieces of the pie out there, but until you've LIVED it, spent years around it, especially in a variety of forms, the full picture is just too big to view from one window. I grew up in ag, worked in ag, went on to work in Food Safety and Microbiology, and then to work in testing the environment for organic contaminants. Are GMO's right or wrong? They are both and neither. Without GMO bacteria, there wouldn't be half the medications around that have saved lives, and most insulin dependent diabetics would be long dead. GMO crops were a great boon when they came out, but now just like antibiotic resistance, it's being overcome by nature. Another product will come out eventually to top Round Up Ready, just like more antibiotics came out to fight penicillin-resistance. Are we worse off now due to high resistance antibiotics than if penicillin had not been discovered? I think not. Is RoundUp Ready horrible? The bestest ever? I think neither. Did it fit a niche? Absolutely? Can you bet other companies are racing to find something new that will have resistance to disease, competition from weeds, or pest resistance? Bet your bottom dollar on it.
Of course, for myself and my small garden, I do use chemicals, as they were meant to be used. I mix a batch of RoundUp specifically as the label states, spray down to get the first round of junk under control. After that I hand weed. I use Sevin dust as specifically stated on the label, due to the madness of cucumber beetles here. I might do that once a season (last year I didn't need it). Most smart farmers do the same - they don't blow pesticide and herbicides out for fun - that stuff is EXPENSIVE. They use it as needed, when needed, and as directed. It's wasteful otherwise and waste = $.
/ramble
There is a disconnect here....the term CAFO's is so easy to slam, but within that word, you ARE pointing to American farmers. It's easy to say Montsano rules the world, but when you get down to it, and form an understanding of what a CAFO is and who is registered as a CAFO operator, well, they ARE American farmers, the good ol' boys, the folks with Centennial signs in front of the house that show this farm has been operated by the same family for over 100 years.
I personally grew up with many of these folks, and know many more, and the registered CAFO list here in MI is littered with names of folks I could describe to you in detail, because I KNOW who they are. I've been on their property, they've been on ours, and when the idyllic image of a sun-beaten, dirt-under-the-nails farmer in a beat up Ford thought to portray the "little guy", well, you just described the guys I know who have operations that are registered CAFO's.
Are some large operations run in a shoddy manner? Yes. Are all of them? NO. Does the word "Incorporated" mean some fat cat somewhere else is running the show? NO. (I grew up on a small non-CAFO horse farm that was "Incorporated", it's a tax/liability label. There were three people involved - my parents and the trainer.)
There are little pieces of the pie out there, but until you've LIVED it, spent years around it, especially in a variety of forms, the full picture is just too big to view from one window. I grew up in ag, worked in ag, went on to work in Food Safety and Microbiology, and then to work in testing the environment for organic contaminants. Are GMO's right or wrong? They are both and neither. Without GMO bacteria, there wouldn't be half the medications around that have saved lives, and most insulin dependent diabetics would be long dead. GMO crops were a great boon when they came out, but now just like antibiotic resistance, it's being overcome by nature. Another product will come out eventually to top Round Up Ready, just like more antibiotics came out to fight penicillin-resistance. Are we worse off now due to high resistance antibiotics than if penicillin had not been discovered? I think not. Is RoundUp Ready horrible? The bestest ever? I think neither. Did it fit a niche? Absolutely? Can you bet other companies are racing to find something new that will have resistance to disease, competition from weeds, or pest resistance? Bet your bottom dollar on it.
Of course, for myself and my small garden, I do use chemicals, as they were meant to be used. I mix a batch of RoundUp specifically as the label states, spray down to get the first round of junk under control. After that I hand weed. I use Sevin dust as specifically stated on the label, due to the madness of cucumber beetles here. I might do that once a season (last year I didn't need it). Most smart farmers do the same - they don't blow pesticide and herbicides out for fun - that stuff is EXPENSIVE. They use it as needed, when needed, and as directed. It's wasteful otherwise and waste = $.
/ramble
