axel:
>big chunks of the land
>used for animals to eat and walk about? this is very stupid and mad, don=B4t
>you think? you could grow trees, all sorts of vegetables, natural reserves,
>reforestation, etc. yes there are areas that can not grow all this, but
>many can.

Your getting personal here, axel. We have six acres where we could grow
nearly anything, plant or animal that doesn't have a chill requirement. It
appears that our land will support over twenty sheep, a couple donkeys,
hundreds of poultry of various types, extensive gardens and mostly
orchards--somehwere down the line. We bring in some soil ammendments and,
yes. some cheap grain mixtures to "control" the animals but they do or will
mostly pasture. Their excrement helps to build soil. They turn the weedy
vegetation under the fruits trees into humus lessening our need for outside
fertilizers and ammendments. And they are a delight.

In a decade or so, we should have _way_ more food than we could eat (time
to get some pigs ;)). If it was done even more intensively, I suspect
several large families could be very nourished from this set up. Animals
walking about and eating is not stupid or mad. It's part of the way it
works.

Besides, if you feel the world's population is too large, why would you
want feed more human mouths with the grain that goes to cattle? The
population would jump even faster, no?

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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