Re: Kevorkian Economics- long

[Peggy Adams <adams@pcei.org>]

The question I think, more appropriately, is if highly mechanized
monoculture oreinted toward export, is an environmentally sustainable or
socally acceptable way to produce food?  Food production differs from other
industry in that, from beginning to end, it deals with natural, living
systems that are responsive to environmental pressures.  Is this the way we
want to treat our land or our rural economy? With the abilty to produce
food locally is it really to our benefit to drain our local economies by
spending all our money on food processed in and imported from somewhere
else?

Are we really so removed from the source of our food that as long as
something appears wrapped and ready on the shelf of the grocery store we
don't care how it got there?  Are salmonella contaminated eggs from
infected chickens really acceptable?  Is the incredible pollution from hog
confinement operations ok as long as it's not in "my neighborhood"?  Are e
coli outbreaks from poorly monitored meat processing plants really
acceptable as just part of doing business? I think there's more to the
issue than a longing for old Jeffersonian times.

P.

>It's hard to argue that highly mechanized monoculture, oriented toward export,
>isn't just another business and therefore should be subject to the laws of the
>marketplace.
>
>It's only our Jeffersonian heritage that allows farmers to argue that their
>lifestyle is more virtuous than others and therefore should be subsidized.
>___
>Ron  Force                                                   rforce@moscow.com
>Moscow, Idaho U.S.A.


Peggy Adams

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