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Re: Brashears on Hanson



In article <32AA35D3.2887@xmission.com>, Jim <msteitz@xmission.com> wrote:

>Natural populations of species are constrained by the carrying capacity
>of their environment, and herbivore species never attain a permanent
>population that would create pollution problems for the watershed, or
>overgrazing problems for the watershed. The feetlots and farms are a
>different situation entirely. They have food, in the form of cattle
>feed, imported by the ton from other areas. Thus, the only constraint on
>the population is the size of the farming operation. This population is
>usually quite high, and cattle, being some of the most inefficient
>metabolizers on earth, produce quite a bit of waste that can
>eutrophicate a stream or pond until it is lifeless. This as not at all
>"the same effect" as those of natural populations.
>        Your ideas also display a logical error shown in many "it's not
>our
>fault" anti-environmental arguments. If something is taking place that
>rapidly changes or diminishes something that should be rather permanent,
>it cannot be of natural origin, because that change would have been
>complete long ago, because the human existence represents
>a small fraction of the earth's history. For example, natural sources of
>chlorine cannot be responsible for ozone depletion, because assuming
>that chlorine source has been constant throughout earth history, the
>ozone layer would have been gone long ago. Similarly, the duck
>population you are referring to must have recently jumped in
>popluation,  or else that water body would have been lifeless long ago,
>and likely filled with sediment and organic debris until it was
>converted into land, and would not be here. It is quite likely that this
>increase was caused by humans, as predator elimination has caused
>populations of many herbivore species (those that can coexist with
>humans in settled landscapes) to increase rapidly.

I should have been more direct with my previous questions.

If you have a dairy farm, and all of your equipment must be located in one 
building due to its design and the location of electrical outlets, etc., it 
should be obvious that you will need to keep all of your dairy cows close 
to the equipment if you are to milk them every day.  How would you run a 
dairy farm while keeping the animals spread out?

If you run a slaughter-house, it should be obvious that you need to herd 
all of the steers together in the stock yard before you "process" them.  In 
this circumstance, how would you maintain any kind of efficiency in your 
operation if your steers are scattered far and wide?

I could probably cite other examples, but I am trying to make the point 
that there is probably a very good reason that some of these things exist. 
It may be impossible for some of these operations to comply with 
environmental demands and remain in business.



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