Insect Apocalypse?

[Mini Horses]

we can't farm enough to feed the population without them

Personally, I feel we can do a LOT better with less. Plus the chemicals at growth and processing are part of what's causing so many health issues. There is a lot of waste in America -- speaking crops right now. Organic roof tops in cities is a great idea, we need to stop the other pollution, too, for that to work successfully. Less fast food and more fresh markets would be nice. But then some humans don't want to cook, just eat, often too much.

I suppose one of the issues is the size of the population

 

[BarredBuff]

Personally, I feel we can do a LOT better with less. Plus the chemicals at growth and processing are part of what's causing so many health issues. There is a lot of waste in America -- speaking crops right now. Organic roof tops in cities is a great idea, we need to stop the other pollution, too, for that to work successfully. Less fast food and more fresh markets would be nice. But then some humans don't want to cook, just eat, often too much.

I suppose one of the issues is the size of the population

I agree with that wholeheartedly for what folks on this forum do. If I tend my own garden and grow some of my own grains, I can manage it better at this level. I have the time and interest to go out and pick bugs off or use alternate methods to manage them. Simultaneously, if a crop fails for us our livelihood is not lost and we manage other ways. We go buy it or we make do without and use another crop that produced well. This is because we engage in polyculture and not a monoculture.

This is in contrast to a farmer raising cash crops as his livelihood. At that scale, it is an entirely different ball game. A great friend of mine farms at that scale for a living. In order for him to do that efficiently, conventional chemical usage is necessary. If not, the crop (part of the monoculture) fails and he can't pay his bills.

The problem is the system utilized for the last 150 years. It has done a great job at feeding our country cheaply, but I think our culture and environment have suffered. I understand why farmers use the methods that they do to produce a crop, but I also desire to do my own production for my family too.

 

[NH Homesteader]

But the question is, should that monoculture even exist? I support farmers and don't want to see them fail but the system needs to change. It's like dairy farmers. Totally support them, hard workers, but if dairy production can't support itself without subsidies, maybe it (or we) need to change.

 

[CrealCritter]

In the Midwest a LOT of GMO corn is grown for ethenol.

 

[Britesea]

Nature will eventually re balance the scales, although probably NOT in a way we will appreciate. It's all very good to say that there are too many humans, but I don't see very many people willing to step up to the plate and bow out, lol. If you want to talk about mandatory sterilization to control the population... it's been suggested before, and the word genocide got slung about...

 

[tortoise]

@Britesea , there are population reducing initiatives which don't interfere with human rights. Reducing child mortality and improving education for women both correlate with lower birth rates. In fact, most of the women's right and human rights issues are ones which correlate with lower birth rates. Globally, birth rates are greatly reduced from 100 years ago, where many countries have birth rates low enough to begin reducing their populations. That's great except for USA's social security system.