roc_abilly
Member
I have put this in the science forum because I think modern technology yet again is at the root of this crisis, and what it does to people, to nature, to beauty, etc.
Anyway I noticed that the notorious Irish farmer, known as "Valamhic", went missing on Irish fora recently, and began having a lot more of his half crazed melt downs on those home grown broadcasts of his, around the same time as the long overdue RTE investigation "Dairy's Dirty Secret" aired, and as this new cut to the "nitrates derogation stocking rate" is being imposed (with non-compliance threatening farmers' basic payment, and payments under the areas of natural constraint, GLAS and other payment schemes).
Of course correlation is not causation, I just note the correlation, and you put that together with all of that poster's previous talk of slurry spreading and apparent relish of castrating pigs, and one might justly wonder if all these new developments have thrown him, of course his spokesperson "Geryr" on here is most welcome to come on and provide the proper explanations.
Anyway beyond the animal abuse in the industry recently exposed on the RTE programme, what we are mainly dealing with in these farms is biodiversity loss, CO2, and the massive impact of nitrogen/phosphorous fertilizer flows into natural systems.
To get the problem in perspective, consider Ireland's countryside as it is now and how it ought to look in its wild natural state. E.g.
www.irishexaminer.com
Again, there is no "technological panacea" to things like the nitrate problem. (For example a famous illustration is how in Lake Erie from the 1960's to the present, technologists kept trying to address the "bottleneck" in nitrate build up. But then a few years later, they would find the problem just shifted downstream or upstream within a much larger system than they had originally conceived.)
While we're on the subject of this modern "progress" in agriculture let us also cast an eye to the fact that in our parents' generation they would walk around and through farmer's fields just the same as they would walk through the uplands and shores as their right, but now the alleged property rights of farmers preclude that ancient right completely.
Yes, our cities and indeed the cities of other countries are utterly dependent on this fossil fuel driven, nitrate driven, technological type of industrialised farms, we kill these farms and we kill ourselves, effectively.
But then they also are like a scourge on the natural environment, pumping CO2 into the air, pumping nitrates into the rivers, groundwater, and estuaries, turning this land into a bleak monoculture of grass fields, and uplands devastated from over-grazing.
Instead of working with nature, it bullies nature. So what do you do? Go back to organics and T.L.C. (tender loving care)? But does that have the productive capability we need to sustain our huge populations?
Anyway I noticed that the notorious Irish farmer, known as "Valamhic", went missing on Irish fora recently, and began having a lot more of his half crazed melt downs on those home grown broadcasts of his, around the same time as the long overdue RTE investigation "Dairy's Dirty Secret" aired, and as this new cut to the "nitrates derogation stocking rate" is being imposed (with non-compliance threatening farmers' basic payment, and payments under the areas of natural constraint, GLAS and other payment schemes).
Of course correlation is not causation, I just note the correlation, and you put that together with all of that poster's previous talk of slurry spreading and apparent relish of castrating pigs, and one might justly wonder if all these new developments have thrown him, of course his spokesperson "Geryr" on here is most welcome to come on and provide the proper explanations.
Anyway beyond the animal abuse in the industry recently exposed on the RTE programme, what we are mainly dealing with in these farms is biodiversity loss, CO2, and the massive impact of nitrogen/phosphorous fertilizer flows into natural systems.
To get the problem in perspective, consider Ireland's countryside as it is now and how it ought to look in its wild natural state. E.g.
Eoghan Daltun: Ireland should be a rainforest nation — so why isn't it?
Letting our last pieces of rainforest dwindle and die away is as destructive to our heritage as throwing unique artifacts like the Ardagh Chalice into a giant crusher
www.irishexaminer.com
Again, there is no "technological panacea" to things like the nitrate problem. (For example a famous illustration is how in Lake Erie from the 1960's to the present, technologists kept trying to address the "bottleneck" in nitrate build up. But then a few years later, they would find the problem just shifted downstream or upstream within a much larger system than they had originally conceived.)
While we're on the subject of this modern "progress" in agriculture let us also cast an eye to the fact that in our parents' generation they would walk around and through farmer's fields just the same as they would walk through the uplands and shores as their right, but now the alleged property rights of farmers preclude that ancient right completely.
Yes, our cities and indeed the cities of other countries are utterly dependent on this fossil fuel driven, nitrate driven, technological type of industrialised farms, we kill these farms and we kill ourselves, effectively.
But then they also are like a scourge on the natural environment, pumping CO2 into the air, pumping nitrates into the rivers, groundwater, and estuaries, turning this land into a bleak monoculture of grass fields, and uplands devastated from over-grazing.
Instead of working with nature, it bullies nature. So what do you do? Go back to organics and T.L.C. (tender loving care)? But does that have the productive capability we need to sustain our huge populations?
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