Farm Power
The 20th Century was based on BRAWN.
The 21st must be based on BRAINS.
All the animals raised in the buildings on the left are 100% dependent upon coal and diesel to supply their feed, bring in air to fill their lungs and water to flush away their wastes. This assertion is validated with each report of massive die-offs when these systems fail - be it hundreds of hogs which die within hours of ventilation fans failing or tens of thousands of aquatic animals which die when waste systems malfunction.
The coal, diesel and water required to support these “efficient” enterprises is staggering. To witness a knock-you-down waterfall of water flushing a dairy’s laneway is an awakening of epic proportions. To witness quad-axle dump trucks growling as they deliver 300 tons of sand every two weeks for dairy bedding - this sand mined with heavy diesel and trucked on class B town roads never designed for this form of industrial traffic - provides tangible evidence revealing the peripheral costs paid out from our other pocket.
Our economic process is indifferent to future supply and demand. We operate in the here-and-now as this is what brings value to the shareholders who live in the here-and-now. This is our nemesis.
Yet we are certainly smarter than a pig, who, if given the opportunity, will not foul it’s own nest.
Each and every one of the enterprises shown on the right are ZERO % dependent upon coal or diesel for breathing air, ventilation or waste removal. Yes, the organic grain mix for hogs and chickens does require diesel power as does the making of hay for over-wintering grassfed beef. Yet grassfed beef herds self-harvest 100% of their diet from perennial pastures 6-7 months of the year in Wisconsin, and considerably longer at more southerly latitudes.
These low to no energy attributes are size-neutral.
Decentralization does not compound consumption.
Solar-derived power sweetens the frosting.
