Re: "The Oil We Eat"
The article is interesting and thought provoking. I question the author's logic when he wraps up the essay by suggesting that we all go by guns and return to our hunter/gatherer roots--go out and shoot an elk for our years supply of protein. Where would our wildlife balance be if that took place? I doubt there would be any wildlife left.
Manning takes a jab at vegetarians in the article suggesting that the takeover of the planet with grain production is a vegetarian thing, when in fact, as he points out himself, most ( 80 something %) of our grain is fed to livestock. Local biointensive gardening practices would allow for three-fourths of our countryside to be returned to native ecostystems.
Jack Eastman
e on 3/8/04 11:18 AM, Cindy Hildebrand at [log in to unmask] wrote:
This article, subtitled "Following the food chain back to Iraq," includes some discussion of Iowa agriculture and prairies. It's by Richard Manning, and was the February HARPER'S MAGAZINE cover story. It's an interesting piece that deals with ecology, economics, and politics. Here's a brief excerpt: "Iowa's fields require the energy of 4,000 Nagasaki bombs every year."
If you can't find the magazine, the article was posted online, last time I checked:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/280191.shtml
Cindy Hildebrand
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57439 250th St.
Ames, IA 50010
"Iowa is said to be a prairie state, but what is a prairie to the present generation? Within 40 or 50 years, the broad stretches of tall shining grass trembling in the sunlight or tossed by the breezes into billowy waves, gorgeous as the season progresses with its pageant of brilliant hued flowers... is fast passing..." (Ada Hayden) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp
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