by KaiserJeep » Fri 30 Nov 2018, 11:00:27
OK, I read what you said, and I don't doubt any of it. But all of it STILL amounts to you stating your opinions without any data.
I'm not questioning your expertise. But somebody did some research, made some calculations, and said that "Plan B is better than Plan A for preserving natural diversity", in effect, in the Nature article linked in the first message by ME, the original thread poster.
Once again, we are not talking food quality, not even discussing whether it's better for A) the environment or B) an individual's health to eat vegan/vegetarian versus an omnivorous diet. We are trading off the impacts on natural biodiversity from the highly mechanized and petroleum-fuelled farming of a typical large modern farm and smaller operations which include farm co-ops, subsistence farming, family farms, etc.
FWIW, you need to better define the terms you are using. For example, the slash & burn agriculture used in the tropics is a form of subsistence farming, but not a very sustainable one. Palm oil plantations, MidWestern corn/soy/wheat rotations, and silly chicken houses where they build raised decks on the side just to be allowed to advertize "free range chickens" are examples of abuses from large corporations we know about.
But NONE of those side diversions are what we are talking about. The original scientific paper has advanced the theory that on a global scale, leaving natural biodiversity intact versus converting it to food production - which means tilled soils, orchards, greenhouses, ranching food animals, etc. etc. - anything except leaving the myriad plants/animals in place and unmolested, is better for the planet. I did say "planet", and not country, continent, state, corporation, or any smaller geographical distinction.
So (if you please) would you kindly focus on the thread topic, and give us your opinion, backed up not by your personal knowledge and beliefs - which nobody is even questioning - but by published literature in peer-reviewed scietific journals?
Here at peakoil.com, we are hobbyists with an interest in FF exhaustion. Some petroleum industry people, some Science and Mathematics types, some Engineers, in fact a variety of backgrounds. You are welcome to participate, but a screen name like "farmlad" is not a credential that says that you are somebody whose opinions are to be accepted as fact. With respect, you obviously have firmly held beliefs that none of us is even prepared to assess, because you have not provided the writings of the experts in your field - or even published articles in the popular press - in fact you have done nothing to support your opinions, of which you seem to have a great many.
Again, be welcome - but answer the questions asked in the thread topic, please.
KaiserJeep 2.0, Neural Subnode 0010 0000 0001 0110 - 1001 0011 0011, Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 0000 0000 0001
Resistance is Futile, YOU will be Assimilated.
Warning: Messages timestamped before April 1, 2016, 06:00 PST were posted by the unmodified human KaiserJeep 1.0