The past few days I have watched the debacle at Copenhagen and all the talk of global warming. It seems like everyone, including Sir Paul McCartney, wants to save the planet. I fear this has the potential to be very devastating to my way of life, agriculture and ultimately to our country and to our freedom.
Let's forget that the "facts" that are being thrown around are just theories and there are plenty of other theories that are in opposition that are being ignored. Global warming (or climate change as it has been changed to) is a shaky theory at best. But let's ignore that for right now.
The changes being discussed are putting a bulls-eye right on agriculture and that could have catastrophic results. First, the prices of our inputs such as fuel and fertilizer are subject to huge increases. This puts already razor thing profit margins in great peril. Our profit margins are what the hard-working family farmers and ranchers are living on and it will put many out of business. This will also force cutbacks in the way we grow crops. We will no longer be able to be as efficient and produce as much food of the ever dwindling acres of farmland. Feeding our ever-growing population requires us to operate at full speed.
Another danger coming to us from Copenhagen, is the push to get meat out of our diets. Ideas like Meatless Monday and Less Meat= Less Heat are being touted at this meeting. The bottom line is meat is an important staple of our diet. It contributes valuable nutrients and protein while actually working to sustain our environment. The idea that "greenhouse gases" produced by livestock contribute to "global warming" are at best missleading and at worst absolute fiction. The raising of livestock on modern farms and ranches is absolutely critical to feeding our ever growing populations.
In fact, it has been suggested that developing nations need to look toward the agricultural system in the United States as a model. More efficient production would actually lessen the impact we have on the environment, while at the same time, increase the world's food supply
All of this will lead to an increase in food prices and a shortage of the food we all take for granted. So I encourage everyone reading this to become an advocate for agriculture, that is how you save the planet.
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While I'm not highly educated on this I do believe that global warming is something that has occured in the past. As far as the gas tax, my husband and I have a dairy farm and we have cows that they would like to blame for greenhouse gases. Well, no one is talking about crediting us for the oxygen produced by the acres and acres of crops we grow. Keep up the good work of educating and showing your love for what you do. Even though times are tough in the dairy business we wouldn't trade the opportunity that has been given to us for anything.
ReplyDelete"The bottom line is meat is an important staple of our diet. It contributes valuable nutrients and protein..." No, the bottom line is that there is nothing in meat that we cannot get more efficiently in a plant based diet.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the idea that "meat" is sustainable --- In order to "feed the world" is a mis-statement. We can feed 6 - 10 times more people on a plant based diet. It takes 3.5 acres of land to grow food for a meat eater and less than a half an acre for someone on a vegan diet. Your problem is that your industry is finally being revealed for what it is: wasteful, inefficent, unhealthy and horrible in it's treatment to sentient beings.
And the saddest thing is that none of it is "necessary".