[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Sierra Club Sustainable Diet Iniative
Hi Sanet People,
On Wed, 22 Oct 1997, Jim Wright wrote:
< I think the Sierra Club proposal is well
< meaning, but simplistic.
< It avoids the real issue, which is that
< the rapid rate we are using our fossil fuel
< resources is giving most of us an unrealistic
< picture of our real agricultural wealth. Once
< the oil is gone, North Americans and Europeans
< will eat much like everyone else, don't you think?
< IMHO we need a carbon tax to help
< remind us the true value of sustainable/
< non-sustainable resources we have come to
< depend on.
More specifically it is simplistic because it relies on Alan Durning's
and Worldwatch's limited understanding of the role of animals, especially
ruminants, in a post-oil, high energy-cost agriculture. As programs like
Heifer Project International have known for ages, ruminant animals,
properly used to capture and process high fiber biomass, are a
cornerstone of fertility self sufficiency for the third world farmers HPI
serves, who cannot afford our oil-based agriculture. In possibly less
than a generation, when we can no longer afford it either, animals will
take on a different, more important role in our agriculture, rather than
disapear.
Jeremy Rifkin's BEYOND BEEF relied on the same sources and made the
same mistake, reinforcing the ideological vegetarians in their ignorance.
Karl North
Northland Sheep Dairy
northsheep@juno.com
"Mother Nature never tries to farm without livestock" --Albert Howard
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".