Cowspiracy. Seaspiracy, now this? What am I supposed to eat!?! Hyperbole aside, buying food that is actually sustainable and has no ethical concerns seems very difficult.
I would think that they manage their farm land as an investment. It isn’t easy to move to a different area due to labor, equipment, investment into the ground, etc.
If anything, I’d expect a small farm operation to easily relocate should the land become less productive.
That's never made any sense to me. Why does the food become bad just because I'm farther from the farmer? The environmental emissions from transport are minimal, so that can't be it.
Are you trying to say eat from grown by a small farmer?
But that's no good either, small farmers are less efficient. Or maybe you are valuing something else over environmental efficiency?
Can you explain?
It is not an exact rule of course. There are many irresponsible small farmers who just inherited a small farm and run it poorly, and there's some big farms that do things very properly.
Big dairy industry looks different. A big farm with 1000 milking cows is hyper-optimized for maximum profit. There is not enough pasture to go round, so depending on regulations of the country, the animals may never go outside ever. If you can save 1% on buying in cheaper food, even if it comes from half a continent away, you do it since that's easily a six-figure savings. If you can increase stocking density withing law limits, you do it. If you need to use less sand or can get away with cleaning their water bins less often, you do it. Each animal is a number that turns food expenses into milk profits, that's it.
Where I live, we buy summer crops from local farms about 30 miles away. The farmers sell for half of retail, and make about double. They are fairly large operations with a diverse set of products and have a sustainable, smart approach to farming — most have been in business for hundreds of years and plan to remain.
The monocropping of the Midwest is creating a desert, period. We’ll be importing corn in my lifetime. Vegetable crops in the Colorado irrigation corridor are vulnerable to climate change.
Want to bet on whether the US will become a net corn importer?
What happens to the “miracle in the desert” in California and Arizona if climate changes significantly reduces snowfall in the Colorado River watershed?
IMO, we face risks that are real, and short term economic forces and incentives will affect our ability to adapt. I live in the Northeast, and it’s important that on a regional basis agriculture is an industry that is vital and can grow.
There are many advantages but not shipping, flying or excessive trucking makes it much greener.
Add in regenerative organic farming processes, and you pay farmers to improve the land.