Pastures are not typically plowed, certainly native pastures are not. Rod's point is
that much land is not suitable for growing cereal crops and so ought not to be plowed
up
but it could still be used for pasture.. You respond that pastures ought not be plowed
up and so should be taken out of production. After a long period of time one could plow
up some pastures but then one would replant forage grasses not grain. These are
improved
as contrasted with native pastures. What you are imagining is the plowing up of pasture
to grow grain something that Rod hadn't in mind at all.
Cheers, Ken Hanly.
Carrol Cox wrote:
> Rod Hay wrote:
>
> > Producing grain and livestock on the same farm will introduce some problems. There
> > is land in the west that is suited to pasture but to no other agricultural use. If
> > you require that grain growing and pasture be together you are taking this land
> > out of agricultural use.
>
> Yes. A good deal of the world's potential protein (especially after the world
> stops wrecking areas like the great plains or large parts of mongolia) is
> locked up in grasses which the human stomach cannot digest. There should
> be no plowing on the Great Plains -- with either horses or tractors.
>
> Re transitions. Even with socialist revolution by 2002 there will be a long
> period of time before ecologically rational economies can be built
> because of population pressures. That is why it is Lou's and Mark's
> arguments (unlike some other socialist positions) require some sort
> of projection into the future. The earth's population is going to go
> up another few billion before it levels off and decreases. Proposals
> for a radical transformation of agriculture need to be distinguished
> from proposals for genocide.
>
> Carrol
