Factory farming is propped up purely based on government funding and censorship of the negative aspects of it
No, it became the norm post-Borlaug because its efficient as fuck.
If the cities vanished, right now, 75% of the population vanished and food demand dropped accordingly, do I believe that rural farming would go back to yeoman farmer America?
No, I don't.
Oh, you'll see SOME reductions of the extremes. Fewer feedlots, fewer high density hog enclosures. But will farmers stop using glyphosate? No. Fuck no. No chance, as long as the energy industry is there to produce it.
Why? Because it's efficient. Spraying isn't free. They're not doing it because they feel pressured by demand to do it. They're doing it because if they don't their yields drop. In other words it costs less to buy spray then the drop in yield would cost them if they didn't spray. It's a completely cold economic assessment, cost of spray vs cost of lost yield.
THAT WON'T CHANGE.
At least not without a total collapse in the energy sector. Or a precipitous drop in demand and prices such that it's no longer economical to spray.
No, it became the norm post-Borlaug because its efficient as fuck.
If the cities vanished, right now, 75% of the population vanished and food demand dropped accordingly, do I believe that rural farming would go back to yeoman farmer America?
No, I don't.
Oh, you'll see SOME reductions of the extremes. Fewer feedlots, fewer high density hog enclosures. But will farmers stop using glyphosate? No. Fuck no. No chance, as long as the energy industry is there to produce it.
Why? Because it's efficient. Spraying isn't free. They're not doing it because they feel pressured by demand to do it. They're doing it because if they don't their yields drop. In other words it costs less to buy spray then the drop in yield would cost them if they didn't spray. It's a completely cold economic assessment, cost of spray vs cost of lost yield.
THAT WON'T CHANGE.
At least not without a total collapse in the energy sector. Or a precipitous drop in demand and prices such that it's no longer economical to spray.