Farming With Animals Is Not Evil
It’s necessary and we are not far removed from them.
Remember this if nothing else: Humans were the first domesticated animal species.
This important article was published today.
‘A disconnect’ in the food chain
This time last year, half of Paul Allen’s green bean and cabbage crops at RC Hatton farms in Pahokee, Florida, would’ve been destined for food service. Now he’s plowing 5 to 6 million pounds of vegetables back into his fields.
“Retail cannot absorb it,” he said. “Whatever else you’ve got just goes unharvested and you’ve got to mulch it back into the ground.”
It’s hard to get the feel for what it is like to plow under acres of vegetables just because it costs more to harvest than you will receive by selling them. Blood, sweat and tears are expended to prepare the soil, plan the fields, start the seeds, transplant the seedlings, fight weeds and pests, prune the vines, arrange labor for harvest and keep the equipment running and banks at bay. Just when you’ve reached the very end of your credit and energy rope, the market disappears. The only canning plants are huge and a thousand miles away, and probably only built to process one or two types of crop, on predetermined contracts, and not the varieties you have. The farmer is the…
