Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 441 posts

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#421

Post by QuarterReptile »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #82
ryguytilidie wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't buy a lifestyle from them, I buy fucking good milk from animals that are loved like family, and I'm proud to be helping them make a living doing something that is good for everyone(including the cows). It's not a lifestyle, it's just supporting people who aren't shitting on everyone's future. The things you say here seem like you are ABSOLUTELY buying a lifestyle here. ie. values for how animals should be tr…

I think he means that he is buying "the cow's lifestyle", instead of his. I applaud the sentiment, but do small farm cows, loved like they are part of the family actually do less damage to the environment? Is factory farming doing something that makes factory cows produce more methane? I also disagree he is not buying a lifestyle for himself. Non pasteurized milk is ABSOLUTELY better tasting. So he is purchasing a lu…

"Is factory farming doing something that makes factory cows produce more methane?"

Unequivocally yes,by increasing the number of cows as a result of their being more affordable.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#422

Post by pvaldes »

dghughes wrote: post #405
rmrm wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking about farmscale agriculture, it's hundreds of chickens at least. If it's pastured, they likely need to be moved quite often. Chickens are likely easiest, but on a scale to produce a living for a family, I don't think any type of farming or ranching is low effort or easy to step away from.

I bet most people don't know chickens need light to lay eggs, their egg laying will slow down as the days grow shorter. Plus they will kill each other if even the slightest bit of blood appears. And the smell oh the smell!

This problems improve if given enough space and aren't crowded

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#423

Post by Dylan16807 »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #420
Dylan16807 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We know that other non-local products can be made cheaper because they are in localities that are lax on labor laws and environmental protection. That can be a factor, but simply making things in bulk is a huge efficiency gain even with the exact same worker/environment protection. And on top of that you have transportation efficiency to take into account. A remote farm can send full trailers of product to a distri…

It's not always advantageous to be efficient, and this is even more true in really important areas like food supply, because having the extra, underutilized capacity can save you in a pinch. When it comes to frivolous things like computers and phones and cars, it's much easier to favor efficiency,because the breakdowns can be really problematic, but still less immediately endangering. Evolution is perhaps the best ex…

Only specific types of inefficiency represent underutilized capacity. And I don't see how local food shipping qualifies. If anything the distribution-center model makes it easier to reallocate resources toward food supply, because they already have lots of trucks available that typically don't carry food.

By comparison, "just-in-time" shipping is an example where the efficiency removes those margins. But that's orthogonal to how far the food ships. You can have similar-sized buffers either way.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#424

Post by skeleton »

myth_drannon wrote: post #417
erikpukinskis wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chickens are pretty easy though. You can pay some neighborhood teenagers to take care of the flock while you’re in Aruba.

When I was a child we had some chickens. The most difficult part was keeping them safe outside dogs, cats kill them for fun. Foxes and other wild animals tend to really like them for lunch.

We learned the hard way that pigs also like to kill chickens for fun. Although it's possible this behavior was unique to our pig.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#425

Post by pdfernhout »

plessthanpt05 wrote: post #399
pdfernhout wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skin cancer is generally much easier to treat though than all the other internal cancers people can get from vitamin D deficiency... Also, something to think about: http://dermatologytimes.modernmedicine.com/dermatology-times... "Researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have revealed that they are finding more instances of melanoma in office workers than people who work outdoors..."

I might have missed it from just quickly looking at that source, but what do they think is causing this increase of melanoma in office workers?

From other things I've read, probably vitamin D deficiency form lack of sunlight is a factor. Of course, there can be too much of a good thing too...

Intermittent sun exposure has also been blamed rather than frequent to promote tanning.

Lack of exercise and stress from indoor jobs may play a part as well in increased cancer risk in general.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#426

Post by d10r »

tspike wrote: post #318
roadnottaken wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points, but I totally disagree about the suburbs. We live on a quiet cul de sac in a very suburban neighborhood. We’re 20 minutes from mountains, trails, beach, schools, stores, and work. It’s safe and friendly and our kids play with other kids in the street every day. Seems like a pretty sweet compromise to me, but YMMV.

To each his own. To me, the utter dependence on automobiles, the blatantly wasteful lifestyle and the oppression of HOAs feels claustrophobic, dissonant and excessive. I feel depressed when I have to battle traffic to get access to nature.

What is HOA?

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#427

Post by d10r »

mygo wrote: post #369
naavis wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a huge number of people who can barely afford to buy cheap food now, let alone expensive "artisanal" food.

There is a huge number of people who can barely afford to buy cheap laptops now, let alone expensive MacBooks. Doesn’t change the fact that Apple is the most profitable firm.

It's also a matter of priorities, I'm currently "poor" by the definition of the (western) country I live in, but can afford quality food by choosing to prioritize it.

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#428

Post by QuarterReptile »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #423
QuarterReptile wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not always advantageous to be efficient, and this is even more true in really important areas like food supply, because having the extra, underutilized capacity can save you in a pinch. When it comes to frivolous things like computers and phones and cars, it's much easier to favor efficiency,because the breakdowns can be really problematic, but still less immediately endangering. Evolution is perhaps the best ex…

Only specific types of inefficiency represent underutilized capacity. And I don't see how local food shipping qualifies. If anything the distribution-center model makes it easier to reallocate resources toward food supply, because they already have lots of trucks available that typically don't carry food. By comparison, "just-in-time" shipping is an example where the efficiency removes those margins. But that's ortho…

I'm going to just try a couple analogies because I suspect my argument won't come through if I try to explain or use examples. It seems like one interpretation of complex distribution networks is that they form a strong web that can flex and even have fibers break while still maintaining the cohesion and function of the whole. On the other hand, if that web actually turns out to have long dependencies, it could rapidly deteriorate, which is what concerns me.

I suppose that it's true about the large numbers of trucks, but wouldn't those only be reallocated to the detriment of providing other goods? And what happens to all our excess flexibility if severe oil shortages come to pass? Looking closer to the origin,the centralized model leaves us more susceptible to local droughts and floods (because everyone's produce comes from Salinas and watsonville), infectious diseases in livestock herds, and fungus that can cripple the entire crop of a particular fruit (because we've reduced the number of varieties by nine tenths or ninety nine hundredths.)

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#429

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

d10r wrote: post #426
tspike wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To each his own. To me, the utter dependence on automobiles, the blatantly wasteful lifestyle and the oppression of HOAs feels claustrophobic, dissonant and excessive. I feel depressed when I have to battle traffic to get access to nature.

What is HOA?

I believe in this context it means Home Owners Association[1].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association

Re: A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

#430

Post by Dylan16807 »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #428
Dylan16807 wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only specific types of inefficiency represent underutilized capacity. And I don't see how local food shipping qualifies. If anything the distribution-center model makes it easier to reallocate resources toward food supply, because they already have lots of trucks available that typically don't carry food. By comparison, "just-in-time" shipping is an example where the efficiency removes those margins. But that's ortho…

I'm going to just try a couple analogies because I suspect my argument won't come through if I try to explain or use examples. It seems like one interpretation of complex distribution networks is that they form a strong web that can flex and even have fibers break while still maintaining the cohesion and function of the whole. On the other hand, if that web actually turns out to have long dependencies, it could rapid…

> On the other hand, if that web actually turns out to have long dependencies, it could rapidly deteriorate, which is what concerns me.

I agree, but certain types of dependencies are much riskier than others.

> I suppose that it's true about the large numbers of trucks, but wouldn't those only be reallocated to the detriment of providing other goods?

Yes, but what's the detriment of emergency-increasing local shipping? Probably at least as bad.

> And what happens to all our excess flexibility if severe oil shortages come to pass?

Local shipping takes more oil in many cases.

> Looking closer to the origin,the centralized model leaves us more susceptible to local droughts and floods (because everyone's produce comes from Salinas and watsonville), infectious diseases in livestock herds

Instead of a major shortage leading to deaths in one area, while everyone else is fine, it turns into a slight supply reduction over the entire country.

> fungus that can cripple the entire crop of a particular fruit (because we've reduced the number of varieties by nine tenths or ninety nine hundredths.)

That is definitely a major problem, but is also unrelated to how far you ship. Megafarms could plant 50 kinds of tomato efficiently, if they wanted to.

Post reply on HN