We are asking the wrong questions.
We have an incredibly destructive food production system. If you are not already aware of this, please don't read any further. You need remedial help that I am unprepared to provide you with.
Industrial Agriculture has used technology to produce more food than our natural system was meant to produce. This overproduction came at a great price. It has degraded our lands, our waters, and our atmosphere. This misuse of technology has been progressively increasing for about 80 years. The better we humans have become at technology, the more destructive we have become to Nature.
This cannot go on forever.
Humans have lived on this earth for millions of years, having successfully habituated it from the polar ice caps to the equator. From mountain peaks to ocean islands. From rainforests to deserts. Some ecologies supported greater human population densities than others, but there were humans living almost everywhere.
Our diets have evolved, and we are currently asking the following diet questions:
- Will a vegetarian diet make us live longer? How do we produce it?
- Will a carnivore diet make us stronger? How do we produce it?
- What diet will further lower our food costs? How do we produce it?
- What diet will result in a lower carbon footprint? How do we produce it?
- What diet will sustain the largest population on earth? How do we produce it?
- What diet is most profitable for the food industry? How do we produce it?
- What diet allows us to use less labor through our usage of technology? How do we produce it?
I can go on and on with this. I hope that you get my point. it is probably time for the question to become:
- What diet would be good for our planet, and how do we need to produce it?
It has become obvious to me that we probably can't afford to eat anything that we want to, anytime we want to, from an ecological perspective (probably from a health perspective, too, but that is out of my lane). It is past time for the planet to show us what she should be feeding us and how we should be growing it.
It is clear that the absolute worst choice that we can make is to continue to allow Big Food to decide what we should eat and how we should produce it.
I'm equally positive that the worst thing that we can do is allow Big Tech companies to decide how we produce it.
My farm is on the coastal plains of South Georgia. Here we can raise cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry outside on our pastures all year long. We can raise grain, vegetables, and some fruit seasonally. We can do this without damaging technologies that break the cycles of Nature. Through some food preservation practices, we can eat very well 365 days per year. Other ecosystems are less fortunate than us, but some are more fortunate. Food can be produced, without insult to Nature, all over the world.
Sometimes, I may want an avocado. When I do, I'll send some peaches in exchange.
