vision2020
Re: Kevorkian Economics- long
Date forwarded: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 15:50:04 -0800 (PST)
Date sent: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 15:47:17 -0800
To: Ron Force <rforce@moscow.com>
From: Peggy Adams <adams@pcei.org>
Subject: Re: Kevorkian Economics- long
Copies to: vision2020@moscow.com
Forwarded by: vision2020@moscow.com
> Food production differs from
> other industry in that, from beginning to end, it deals with natural,
> living systems that are responsive to environmental pressures.
I disagree, I believe other forms of production (manufacturing, forest
products, textiles, etc.) ALL deal with natural systems, perhaps
just to a lesser degree. I think we DO have a responsibility to
support farming on a scale that fits (subsidies, incentives, tax
breaks). The amount of fossil fuels through fertilizer and production
per/acre that we now put on our soil makes no sense economically
or environmentally. In the six year period from 1950-1955, before
chemical inputs were applied to the Palouse farmground, the
average yield per/acre of wheat in Latah County was 52 bushels.
>From 1990-1996, with more than $100 per/acre of additional
chemical input (fertilizers, pesticides, application, and
management cost) the average yield per/acre for wheat was 63
bushels. Basically, the increased prductivity costs $9.00 per
additional bushel ($100/11 bushell increase) to recieve $3.35 a
bushel on the open market (low price because of supply issues).
This is irrational behavior but we are stuck. Stuck applying
fertilizers, stuck pushing the margins of tillable farmground, and
stuck losing topsoil. Since 1940, the beginning of a study on soil
erosion in Whitman County (Kaiser, V.G. Report of annual Erosion
Damage, Whitman County, 1939-1976) an average of 358 tons of
soil has eroded from EVERY acre of cropland in Whitman County.
This is equivalent to 9.2 million tons of soil moving from each acre
of basin crpoland annually!!
These numbers are haunting, yet when we drive to Kendrick to
head down to the river and look out over our beloved Palouse, we
see business as usual.
Keith C. Russell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Resource Recreation and Tourism and
Leader, Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Research Cooperative
in the UI-Wilderness Research Center
CFWR Room 18a
Moscow, ID 83844-1144
Phone: 208.885.2269
Fax: 208.885-2268
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