As much as I dislike mentioning it, it really is government and consumer demand driving much of the destruction of our plant and animal life in the eco systems on land and in our precious oceans.
I am a farmer with knowledge of it . Because I know, and because I have no power to change this relationship, I feel terrible. And I'd like to talk about it and create a future with you personally. So we can help each other get out of this Catch 22.
Will this farm lose a customer if they read this? I don't think so because most are recognizing that ignorance about our planet is catching up to us at the speed of two coal-burning power plants per week via China.
Consumers have every right to be selective - ask for sound, healthy and good-looking food but to prove my point briefly, our nation has a weight problem. What caused it was good-looking and good-tasting food, high in additives and trans-fats and has nice photography and salesmanship/marketing behind it. I have, twice a month, a big mac attack myself. And I satisfy it and nothing stands it that journey's way.
I need to explain this from a farmer’s perspective - this entire issue of food vs. the environment.
It wasn’t but a few generations ago that America was a nation of farmers - 70 percent of the population was farming and supplied the city folk. It is reversed now and in Ventura County we represent only 2 percent of the population trying to supply for 98 percent - the city folk. We also supply much of the nations avocados and lemons.
That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on each farm to do its duty to supply the 98 percent of the people around them. The pressure comes from all sides: the government regs, imports, trying to satisfy the farmers own needs, water conservation, people raiding her orchards -theft by individuals and organized rings - the need for fencing, rodent control, nutrition for the food, weed control, requirements for crews to pick the fruit, insurance such as workman's compensation - even for the fake claims, fear of lawsuits from all sides, and a host of tiny things farms contend with - just like people in other professions have their job-related issues. What drives the pollution the most is the consumer demand for perfect looking fruit and the goverment trying to protect the consumer from farmers trying to give the consumer perfect looking fruit. It really is that simple. You, me, the goverment. Well, almost that simple.
Now imagine the manufacturing that sits under each of the issues like a lurking, submerged iceberg - it is the sub-structures - the work force and their cars and trucks and forklifts, a packing house, land for the packing house, parking lots covered with asphalt to park the cars for the people who drive them to the packing house, ditto the pesticide and herbicide plant, the mining and smelting and transportation required to create an infrastructure just to get fruit from the farm and across the nation.
Lets use one example - fences - as at one time, they weren’t required too much. You need fence posts, either wood or steel/ anodize aluminum. If its wood it needs to be treated, and up until a few years ago, almost all the wood was treated with Arsenic to keep the rot away. It takes a mining operation and kilns to make arsenic, and explosives and trucking and dozers (all with their own mining operation and manufacturing to make those trucks and dozers). Up until a few years most farmers around here didn't feel the need for fencing but the theft because its now “organized” and people are losing sometimes up to $30,000 at a whack from their avocado orchards when on vacation, now are fencing off orchards. Some orchards are on hills and fill canyons so it is not hard to imagine how to get in and out when there is a canopy of leaves hiding this. This isn’t consumer driven yet but it will - to fence and hire security if needed, take up the sheriff's time (tax dollars and jail crowing) and in fact a special unit was hired until the state (calif) ran out of funds for it. So theft increases and fencing off orchards does also. Fencing off 40 acres takes tens of thousands of dollars. When a crew cuts through it it takes another crew to repair it. How is this a consumers' issue? Good-Looking Fruit for the Retailer.
Now you have a fence and a fence keeps out predators like coyotes and protects its prey - and locally its coyote and bobcat verses for critter control. Now we are into more more issues that doesn’t do well for oceans. Enter the consumer demand for perfect-looking fruit vs. the predator/prey relationship.
As this topic is going to be long, I will post the local predator - prey issue tomorrow and when most of the topics are addressed one by one, day by day, I think you will see that much of the eco-issues are consumer and government driven. And yes, we have our fair share of the burden too. And there will be a final recommendation that will go to Washington
Thank you for you time and effort and hopefully we will see you next time for the predator- prey relationship we have here at White Dove.
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