There are some good organic ways talked about in this thread but you have to remember the scale of production farming. Whatever we use has to be feasible to use on 10,000 acre farms. I have no idea how much energy a laser uses, I'm no rocket surgeon, but I feel like that would be a limiting factor. Not that I don't support this, I'm just not smart enough to know the ins and outs. I know propane fire is used on larger organic farms. Tractor pulls an implement that burns vegetation in between the crop rows. Biggest problem with it is that it still leaves weeds that are growing withing the crop row, as in pest plant growing right next to crop plant within the row itself. Not a huge deal but if they go to seed it's a never ending battle. (or spread via rhizomes)
A big part of the problem with bugs is those 10,000 acre farms. It removes all biodiversity and is a big blinking light attracting anything that feeds on that crop. The answer is to go back to community farming - smaller, biodiverse farms raising multiple crops and livestock for their local community. A good farm is a healthy ecosystem - animal manure feeds the crops, crops feed the livestock etc. And if you're raising for the local community, you eliminate much of the transportation costs. Bring back Victory Gardens too!
I hear this a lot, and generally agree on the principle. But I will offer this:
The numbers matter. The economics matter. There is a limited amount of arable land available to humans on this planet, and we need to feed 8-11 billion of us (11 billion is what they project by 2050 and a "stable" global population now). In order to do that, we must have economies of scale. We need to be able to produce huge quantities of food cheaply and reliably. The green revolution and mono-cropping allows us to do that in ways the old model could never have sustained. It's simply a matter of overall productivity.
Given that reality of the sheer demand for food our population imposes, I think there's a place to marry the two ideas. We can utilize both, with the home gardens being a supplement to, and reserve food supply for, industrial production. It's comparable to trusting the power company to supply your electricity at scale, but having a generator at home for emergencies, extra batteries on hand, and maybe a solar device or two.
There are some good organic ways talked about in this thread but you have to remember the scale of production farming. Whatever we use has to be feasible to use on 10,000 acre farms. I have no idea how much energy a laser uses, I'm no rocket surgeon, but I feel like that would be a limiting factor. Not that I don't support this, I'm just not smart enough to know the ins and outs. I know propane fire is used on larger organic farms. Tractor pulls an implement that burns vegetation in between the crop rows. Biggest problem with it is that it still leaves weeds that are growing withing the crop row, as in pest plant growing right next to crop plant within the row itself. Not a huge deal but if they go to seed it's a never ending battle. (or spread via rhizomes)
A big part of the problem with bugs is those 10,000 acre farms. It removes all biodiversity and is a big blinking light attracting anything that feeds on that crop. The answer is to go back to community farming - smaller, biodiverse farms raising multiple crops and livestock for their local community. A good farm is a healthy ecosystem - animal manure feeds the crops, crops feed the livestock etc. And if you're raising for the local community, you eliminate much of the transportation costs. Bring back Victory Gardens too!
I hear this a lot, and generally agree on the principle. But I will offer this:
The numbers matter. The economics matter. There is a limited amount of arable land available to humans on this planet, and we need to feed 8-11 billion of us (11 billion is what they project by 2050 and a "stable" global population now). In order to do that, we must have economies of scale. We need to be able to produce huge quantities of food cheaply and reliably. The green revolution and mono-cropping allows us to do that in ways the old model could never have sustained. It's simply a matter of overall productivity.
Given that reality of the sheer demand for food our population imposes, I think there's a place to marry the two ideas. We can utilize both, with the home gardens being a supplement to, and reserve food supply for, industrial production. It's comparable to trusting the power company to supply your electricity at scale, but having a generator at home for emergencies, extra batteries on hand, and maybe a solar device or two.
Lots of good consideration.