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Re: Cities/rural--resources (was Yuri receives hypocrite of the week award)





On Thu, 12 Dec 1996, Toby Reiter wrote:

> 
> 
> On 12 Dec 1996, David Lloyd-Jones wrote:
> 
> > On 12 Dec 1996 19:50:06 GMT, "Richard W. Tarara"
> > <rtarara@saintmarys.edu> wrote:
> > 
> > >My point made to counter DLJ's stand, is that the cities can't survive
> > >without the rural support system, while the rural areas CAN survive without
> > >the cities (not at current Western living standard, but survive.) 
> >  
> > Rick,
> >  
> > You're chasing your own tail: that "rural support system" is entirely
> > located in cities.  Fertilizer plants, trucking, research, tax
> > subsidies, education _everything that makes farming possible_ takes
> > place in cities.  The only thing that happens out in the country is a
> > tiny number of people drive tractors around a few days a year -- and
> > this will be done by robots guided by satellites quite soon.
> >  
> > Take away the Chicago mercantile Exchange, and tens of millions die
> > the next year.  Tens of thousands of farmers go out of business in the
> > same time.  They stop farming.  Their farms go back to the buffalo or
> > the squackgrass.
> >  
> You have a very good point. Wait....no you don't.
> 
> Here's why: all of your assumptions about the necessity of cities is 
> based upon a consumer-based view of agriculture. Fertilizer, trucks, 
> research, subsidies, and even bureaucratic education (the kind that comes 
> from cities) is required to produce healthy, productive harvests. Using
                ^^^  Oops...:) A "not" should have been there. Oh well. :) 
> old-fashioned organic methods, solar-powered tractors (you know, the ones 
> that have babies), and intimate knowledge of the land and seasons it is 
> possible to create just as bountiful a harvest as using sick land with 
> artificial fertilizers, artificial seeds, and oil based tractors.  The 
> idea that agriculture needs the stock exchange in order to survive is 
> inherently inaccurate (what happened before there was a Chicago, for 
> instance).


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