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<DIV>Exactly!</DIV>
<DIV>Debi Robinson-Smith</DIV>
<DIV>RavenCroft Farm</DIV>
<DIV>Natural produce; use only down cycled, reused, repurposed, recycled and
make do....</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=garrettmc@verizon.net href="mailto:garrettmc@verizon.net">Garrett
Clevenger</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:11
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] The edge of
common sense</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">"But who is going to feed the
other 99 percent of our burgeoning population, much less a hungry third
world?"</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">As a farmer, I want to
respond to this.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">A common misconception is
that conventional ag is crucial to feeding the world.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">Why is there a "burgeoning
population" or a "hungry third world?"</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">Conventional ag produces a
lot of food to allow this, but at a huge expense.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">That food can't be produced
without a lot of synthetic ingredients and expensive machinery.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">In the process of growing
lots of food, we are burning fossil fuels at an unsustainable pace and
poisoning the planet with pesticides.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">That may make sense for
short-term profits, but in the long run, there will be a huge price to
pay.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">So we produce lots of food to
feed lots of people under a system that is subsidized not only by
government, but by future generations who are going to have to deal with
the impacts conventional ag creates.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">By growing lots of food, we
inflate human populations, which in turn demands more resources.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">Ironically, by feeding the
world with conventional ag we reduce the possibility of growing food
sustainably in order to feed over-inflated populations, making
conventional ag more necessary.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">This takes away the
responsibility and connection people have with growing food, making it
less likely they'll be able to grow food themselves and making them more
dependent on a subsidized conventional ag system.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">Case in point is
Africa. Nobody wants to see starving children, but by inputing
food into that country, more people survive which means more food, water
and other resources are needed which leads to over-population and the
conflicts that arise fighting over those resources.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">So we saved the starving
children, but increased the chance that too many people will now be
fighting for other scarce resources (most importantly water).</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">On the other hand, if
populations are kept at a more sustainable level due to people having to
grow their own food or using more sustainable practices, there will be
less problems due to over-population in the future.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">My whole point to this is
that as a non-conventional farmer, I see that you can grow a lot of food
in a small amount land without pesticides.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">Yes, it may be more
work. Yes, there may not be as much calories produced per square
foot. Yes, 6 billion people probably can't be fed in this manner
without more people working the land.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">The payback is higher quality
more sustainable food without the impacts conventional ag creates.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">At some point, conventional
ag won't be able to feed all the people that it now is allowing to
survive. When 9 billion people don't have enough food or water to
surive, that will probably be as close a definition to "Hell on Earth"
as we've seen. And that will be all thanks to convential ag allowing
burgeoning populations.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">If we were smart, we'd try to
reduce that possibility.</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">But that's assuming too much
as seeing starving children only makes you want to feed them</P>
<P style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier">We are a welfare world,
afterall...</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Courier"><BR></P><BR>Garrett
Clevenger</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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