[POLITICS]? Re: Population reduction

[Guest guest]

>

> From: Heidi Schuppenhauer <heidis@...>

>Subject: Re: Population reduction

>

>

>>That " and will " worries me, . Just who are we going to starve out

>>so that rich Americans can have grass-fed beef? How do you see the

> >WAPification of the world progressing?

>

>

>I'd love the population to reduce, myself (and I think it would if

>all women could afford good birth control and knew how

>to use it and the church wasn't telling them not to use it -- Canada

>is already on a negative population curve, as is much of Europe).

I think it's a Good Thing, as long as it's voluntary, and relatively

even over the planet. But the wars of the next century are going to

have a lot to do with demographics, and I don't see any good way to

bring the whole-world population down without immigration control,

because otherwise the cultures that reduce their birthrate first will

be swamped by those who wait.

Even then, I think that the majority of the planet will still end up

being primarily cereal-burners.

>But I don't think you'd have to reduce the population to get

>good grass fed meat. I live in an area where a lot of people DO

>grow their own. There are HUGE areas of land that used to

>support millions of animals that are now empty. Or worse,

>are being *mowed* by petroleum based machines. It takes

>surprisingly little area to feed a cow, and per pound, 1/3 that

>much to grow an elk or goat. Most of those un-grazed areas

>now are fire hazards. Every suburban block disposes of huge

>amounts of shrubbery and lawn clippings to the compost truck

>... enough to feed a herd of goats. (I support two goats off my

>front lawn, and we still have to mow it sometimes, and I still

>have to compost a huge amount of stuff, which means I'm

>getting more goats one of these days).

No, you probably wouldn't have to reduce population. OTOH, you'd have

to have a HUGE adjustment in land use, zoning, and notions of private

property rights. Nothing pisses me off more than huge chunks of empty

land in suburbs or cities that aren't producing food because of laws.

I had mentioned my peeps to a friend, who said, " I'd love to keep

chickens, but the township won't let me. " Now, this woman doesn't

live in a toney place...it's kind of a white-trash dirt-road

subdivision in an exurb of Cleveland. I said, " If it was me, I'd keep

them inside and wait for the neighbors to complain. " (Yeah, not

ranged, but at least better treated than commercial.) I'm not so

doctrinaire as to say there should be NO restrictions...if it's

pretty likely that a property use will interfere with a neighbor's

property use, it might be more efficient to stop that than to run it

through the courts. But the occasional whiff of manure is not

" interference " .

So...what do you think somebody could support on 3 acres of pasture?

This isn't a hypothetical, though right now time is our limiting

factor (spouse-to-be-Sunday is working mandatory 7 shifts/wk and

being begged to take overtime, I have a big commute plus musical

stuff). How do you handle goats and your lawn...do you stake them?

--

Quick, USUM (ret.)

www.en.com/users/jaquick

Soy: what food eats.