Let's check in on Gerald.
5.45am. Gerald wakes up. He has been accused, in various policy documents this year, of contributing to the destruction of the planet. He addresses this immediately by walking, slowly, to a patch of grass and standing on it. Carbon released: zero. Carbon sequestered into the soil under his hooves: ongoing.
6.30am. Gerald is accused of using 15,000 litres of water per kilogram of beef. He drinks 30 litres from the trough. The remainder, by every published methodology, is rain. He has not commissioned the rain. He has not requested it. He looks up at the sky, with the air of an animal who has not seen the invoice.
7.15am. Gerald is accused of destroying the Amazon. He looks around at Herefordshire. The Amazon is, by his best reckoning, in a different country. He has never been there. He has never been asked. He continues grazing.
9.00am. Gerald is accused of being inefficient. He converts 12kg of grass that no human can digest into protein with a bioavailability above 90%. The grass would, in his absence, become bracken. The bracken would, in its absence, become nothing.
11.00am. Gerald is accused of methane emissions. He exhales. The carbon in the exhalation was, six months ago, in the atmosphere. It will, in approximately nine years, be back in the atmosphere. The cycle is closed. The cycle has been closed for ten thousand years. The cement plant, in the meantime, continues operating.
1.00pm. Gerald is accused of taking land that could grow crops. He looks at his field, which is on a 28-degree slope, in soil 17cm deep, in a county that gets 880mm of rain a year. No tractor has ever successfully operated on this field. He has, by simple geography, taken nothing.
3.00pm. Gerald is accused of being unnecessary. He produces a pat. The dung beetles, by Friday, will have buried it. The grass next month will be visibly better.
Gerald has, by close of business, failed every single accusation.
The accusations will be repeated tomorrow.
Gerald will, by every honest measure, fail those too.
I’m not trying to sound pompous or arragant when I say this but the #1 thing that I struggle with is that the positions that I strive to arrive at… the concepts… the systems aren’t understood by most people inside and outside of Agriculture.
Plants aren’t driven by fertilizer
They are driven by CO2 and sunlight above the surface of the soil… and oxygen, carbohydrates, and proteins below.
I think… and learn analogously. The arrangements or venues that I create in fields work very similar to markets.
The best analogy is the value of beer
What is the value of a single can of miller lite in a case at CostCo vs the value of a beer at a football game or concert?
10x…25x?
Thats what we can do with plants if we’re cognizant of venue.
Sure you need good agronomics and maybe a little N to get things growing, but what’s most important are the real drivers of plant growth.
The other piece to this is America 🇺🇸 wouldn’t be America 🇺🇸 if we weren’t the largest consumer economy in the world.
That is our identity. To be consumers of stuff to impress people that really don’t give a shit … but you think they do.
The economy only works if the rest of the world covets and want to participate in this ecosystem and get a piece of it to themselves.
Therefore… the think tanks of more of a “off grid” holistic thinking has no purpose in Academia or Industry. It’s more of a threat.
You want to fast and eat 🥩 and be healthy without our medication? You want to drive a truck with a carburetor? You value family more than impressing your friends with consumerism? You’re weird… weirdo.
The amazing Henry Rollins on order 37.
He has always been one of the most thought provoking and intellectual Punks I ever met.
Back in the 1980s New Jersey/New York punk scene he would show up to talk and sing.
We Punks share the same philosophy.
Think about Corporate AI now.
All I can hear is that cheap ratchet slob Jasmine Crockett being loud and wrong. She cannot be redistricted into obscurity fast enough. She is an embarrassment to our founding fathers, a stain on the integrity of our country and the product of its rot and decline.
@Dusty3080467325 I quit alcohol cold turkey after 20+ years of daily drinking. I can sleep for the first time in my adult life. I feel like a new human being.
In my experience and opinion, when used with common sense and respect, it is an absolute blessing.
Talk to any “indentured servant” that has raised hogs since the beginning of the shift following the $0.10/lbs extinction event of the late 90’s
Compensation has moved at 1/10 the pace of the costs of electricity, steel, concrete, etc…
Barns at 1st paid off in 6 years, now they don’t outpace…even come close to the cost of money and rust.
It’s a matter of time. Just like how $4 corn works for ground bought in 64’ for $400/ac … but doesn’t for $400/ac cash rent.
The only leg Ag is standing on is old money/equity.
Stories can be told about how people like @JRcowfarmer are finding their own customers and building markets from the ground up at smaller scale. That’s all great and I hope more of this continues…. But
What scares the hell of of me weather we’re talking about a farm, hog barn, or home in town. When ownership jumps to corporations… when the reward for well kept, better management is muted. When no one owns their home, yard, farm, hog barn,
When no one sees their product go to their local community, no positive or negative feedback loop exists
We lose that pride of ownership. We lose engagement. We lose our give a fuck. We lose everything that made up what the “American dream” was all about.
That hopefully will change, but it’s not likely.