On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Woody Wodraska wrote:
> Dear Jim Wright:
>
> << I have trouble imagining that low input agriculture
> will sustain world population without most people
> reverting to being agriculturists. (There are
> worse fates, I guess). ;-) >>
>
> Quite so. If the present system is unsustainable, then it will collapse.
> When it collapses most people will have to grow most of their own
> food--just as they have during the entire history of agriculture--for
> all but the past 100 years or so.
>
> << The REAL
> question is how do we manage the transition
> back to populations being in equilibrium with
> the productive capacity of the land, and the
> energy provided by the sun? How fast do
> we want to get there? >>
>
> Again, true. Except that *we* may not get to choose how quickly we get
> there. The transition may not be well-ordered or pretty or free from
> suffering.
>
> <<Do you think that the CSA farms could support
> themselves as such were it not for cheap personal
> transportation, and buyers who are artificially
> prosperous due to our unsustainable
> N-R resource-based economy?>>
>
> Yes. As the demand grows for wholesome produce, CSA operations can
> become more and more truly local; that is, the consumers will be so much
> closer to the farm that transport will not be that much of an issue. And
> as artificial prosperity is replaced by an economy that is more
> reality-based, labor and goods can be exchanged for food. Again, the
> transition will not be pretty or suffering-free.
>
> Woody Wodraska
> woodyw@juno.com
> "There is no scarcity abiding in Nature.
> Any scarcity we see is our own doing."
>
>
>