- There's little doubt about this: to anyone who has even had a small allottment, a few acres intensively worked by hand will outproduce modern machine farming by far.
It's hard to believe that most farms in the UK up to the mid 19th c were actualy under 100 acres: effectively small enough to be worked by a family with a horse or two. The horse feed of course would eat into the acreage having it's own fuel needs. The advent of the tractor brought that to an end and in doing so freed up more land for food but the costs involved required more cash crops to be sold resulting in any net gain having to be offset against mechanical costs and the oil price: essentially a conversion of (once cheap) oil energy to food energy and this of course leads back to Smaje's main point: that growing food is essentially about energy conversion, and in that score Monbiots "Techno" solution doesn't cut it.
Substituting say solar electricity for oil might be a step forward...though I note my neighbour-of-the-ugliest-wind-turbine-in-Scotland must have far more power than he requires but still uses diesel tractors and machinery...it all takes time I suppose...which unfortunately is in short supply.
Anywise again, lots of food for thought so ta for that. Regards
K
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