[Marxism] Re: farm-raised salmon is poisonous

[David Walters <dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can't say I disagree much with what is argued Louis. I've always
maintained that the ideal farming (productivity [man-hours per ton of
food/ton of food per acre] vs soil conservation vs standard of
living) is probably best in, of all places, Europe where up until
recently they've avoided most of the problems associated with
industrial agricultural organization.

This doesn't mean, however, that all industrial forms of agriculture
are "bad". Like fish farming, one has to look at how it's organized
and developed. I'm adamant about salt-water salmon farming and salt-
water shrimp farming (as in Vietnam and Mexico) because I think the
'facts are in': they are condemnable across the board.

Pig farming is interesting because I've seen some papers
(foodfirst!..? I'm not sure) that discussed this very issue. The
current problem, pollution wise, socially wise, are very obvious with
the large-scale, completely industrialized pig rearing centers in
North and South Carolina. Small scale hog farming, such as in China,
is actually *almost* as bad as crowded conditions in the US except on
a 'smaller scale', the pigs suffer as badly and influenza (and other
diseases) can actually be worse than the large scale farms. I'm not
willing to write it off yet until somebody tries more ecological ways
of rearing hogs...the most important meat animals on the planet.

Some of the ideas floated are:

# More dispersed populations, avoid overcrowding, separate
populations into smaller isolated groups of animals.
# Cut out anti-biotics/hormone treatments, ban it all together (which
would mandate an approach above to keep animals safe.
# A serious dispersal/diverse approach to dealing with animal wastes
(including collecting and burning methane for energy to the same
farms, fertilizer, avoidance of slush ponds, etc.).
# Semi-feedlot farming, require minimum periods of semi-free ranging
of all animals (which reduces the risk of diseases, increases flavor
of the meat).

The point is that no one has really tried an ecological approach to
large scale pig farming. I'd just like to see discussion on this and
example beyond the obvious papers already written on bad this big ham
factories are.

David

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