At 12:02 AM 4/4/01 -0700, jean-claude, aka "Ingrid Bauer" wrote:
<snip>
>This ecological impact is also proportionnally  related to the raise in
>yield to the point that IN REALITY  and GLOBALY there is no gain at all ,
>just the appearance of a temporary and locally  made  improvment .
>The ecological impact   of 1 acre in  chemical agriculture is responsible
>for the impoverishment of many acres of land indirectly affected by what
>comes in the system, ( the production of machinery ,fertilisers , fuel ,
>pesticides , irrigation ...) and by what comes out ( pollutants of many
>sorts)

>Organic farming timidly try to adress the ecological impact but it is still
>serious  because it relie on many things coming from outside the system so
>depleting other aeras of the globe ( machinery , organic fertilisers ,
>irrigation , ...)

There's also the impact it has on the neighboring water systems--just ask
anyone in Maryland!  They're still cleaning up the Bay and the crabs,
oysters, etc. still haven't come back to full strength (or they hadn't last
I'd heard).  Part of this was the result of large scale erosion caused by
clearing land, part by what was then put on said cleared land.

<snip the rest, with which I happen to agree, anyway, but as I've never had
an aol account, won't just quote and say, "me too" <e g>>

Dianne