{"id":1864,"date":"2008-05-25T23:40:59","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T18:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thirdeyesight.in\/blog\/?p=60"},"modified":"2024-07-19T15:47:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T10:17:38","slug":"can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myechoproject.com\/TES\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\/","title":{"rendered":"Can industrial agriculture be sustained?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A few days ago, I wrote about the possible &#8220;Dis-economy of Scale&#8221;, when we start to add up the hidden costs in industrial agriculture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I&#8217;ve just found an interesting <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2008\/05\/21\/news\/companies\/gunther_farming.fortune\/index.htm?postversion=2008052206\">article from Fortune about Jason Clay<\/a>, described as a \u201cthinking environmentalist\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He calls for intensification of agriculture, and \u201ceconomies of scale\u201d. However, the critical departure from usual proponents of industrial farming, his view is to make agriculture \u201cboth more productive and sustainable\u201d (i.e. \u201cgenerating more output from fewer inputs\u201d).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I wonder if that means using truly fewer inputs through the entire chain. That is really the key, since the current intensive and industrial model of farming actually seems to use more input (fuel and production) calories to produce fewer output (food) calories. Unless that changes, the model of industrial agriculture is unsustainable over time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">(The earlier post is here: <a href=\"http:\/\/thirdeyesight.in\/the-dis-economy-of-scale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Dis-Economy of Scale<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And while we are on the subject of sustainability, it&#8217;s always good to remember that human beings haven&#8217;t suddenly become rapacious in the industrial and post-industrial age. We&#8217;ve displayed similar behaviour of overdoing things over centuries &#8211; a good book to pick up is Jared M. Diamond&#8217;s &#8220;Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed&#8221;. (Here&#8217;s his <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jared_Diamond\">profile on Wikipedia<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Fail-Succeed\/dp\/0670033375\">book on Amazon<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using fewer inputs through the entire agricultural \/ food chain is really the key, since the current intensive and industrial model of farming actually seems to use more input (fuel and production) calories to produce fewer output (food) calories. Unless that changes, the model of industrial agriculture is unsustainable over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[274,215,47,1],"tags":[167,179,263,804,214,216,293,391,466,456,467,345,208],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csr","category-food-grocery","category-supply-chain","category-uncategorized","tag-agriculture","tag-corporate-social-responsibility","tag-economy","tag-environmental-social-and-governance-esg","tag-food","tag-food-grocery","tag-food-processing","tag-grocery","tag-industrialisation","tag-inflation","tag-petroleum","tag-prices","tag-sustainability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can industrial agriculture be sustained? - Third Eyesight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index,follow\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/myechoproject.com\/TES\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can industrial agriculture be sustained? - Third Eyesight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Using fewer inputs through the entire agricultural \/ food chain is really the key, since the current intensive and industrial model of farming actually seems to use more input (fuel and production) calories to produce fewer output (food) calories. Unless that changes, the model of industrial agriculture is unsustainable over time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/myechoproject.com\/TES\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Third Eyesight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/thirdeyesight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-25T18:10:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-19T10:17:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devangshu Dutta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thirdeyesight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thirdeyesight\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Devangshu Dutta\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3387e3e154639976110997bbfd794504\"},\"headline\":\"Can industrial agriculture be sustained?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-25T18:10:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-19T10:17:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":218,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"agriculture\",\"Corporate Social Responsibility\",\"economy\",\"Environmental Social and Governance (ESG)\",\"food\",\"Food &amp; Grocery\",\"food processing\",\"grocery\",\"industrialisation\",\"inflation\",\"petroleum\",\"prices\",\"sustainability\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Corporate Social Responsibility\",\"Food &amp; Grocery\",\"Supply Chain\",\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/myechoproject.com\\\/TES\\\/can-industrial-agriculture-be-sustained\\\/\",\"name\":\"Can industrial agriculture be sustained? 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