31–40 of 222 posts
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Isn’t the solution to increase these farms’ economies of scale? So the same civilisation-enhancing forces that drove development 10,000 years ago can show their force more broadly?
What economies of scale specifically do farms have? A farm is not a factory where you can create a uniform process...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What economies of scale specifically do farms have? A farm is not a factory where you can create a uniform process...
Well, as a simple example, you can't efficiently plow or mechanically harvest lots of land which are very small or have a weird shape. If you aggregate them, it becomes much more efficient. Same thing goes for purchasing equipment or supplies, you can buy in bulk for a large farm. Modern farms ARE factories.
Industrialisation of farming is a good thing more than a bad thing. You don't want the cost of food to go up, or the supply to go down. You kind of want large scale industrial farming. It's like complaining that large factories are taking over small artisans.
I am skeptical that is the case - but I might be wrong... I would like to see the output figures in any case.
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I agree with most of your comment but the final paragraph is a bit ???? > if farming in the Western world wasn't heavily subsidized, it wouldn't exist in the Western world It probably would change, but it's weird to suggest it would stop existing without governmental subsidies. Most farming in the West is either intensive mass-production of commodities or sectorial, high-margin goods like wine. For the most part, agr…
He's right. Western Europe heavily imports laborers from Eastern Europe, Turkey and North Africa for many crops. Germany opened its borders at the height of the first Covid-19 wave to allow workers from Romania to come, when Romania was a hot bed for Covid-19. Many Western countries are self sufficient agriculturally and they are huge exporters. Agriculture is a cornerstone of national security. Life sucks when you a…
Just a small correction, you've got your data the other way around. Early to mid April when Asparagus-Gate happened, Romania had at the very worst 500 new daily cases for a population of 19 million, while Germany regularly had 4-5000 for a population of 83 million.
So in essence Germany was a hotbed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's right. Western Europe heavily imports laborers from Eastern Europe, Turkey and North Africa for many crops. Germany opened its borders at the height of the first Covid-19 wave to allow workers from Romania to come, when Romania was a hot bed for Covid-19. Many Western countries are self sufficient agriculturally and they are huge exporters. Agriculture is a cornerstone of national security. Life sucks when you a…
> Germany opened its borders at the height of the first Covid-19 wave to allow workers from Romania to come, when Romania was a hot bed for Covid-19. Just a small correction, you've got your data the other way around. Early to mid April when Asparagus-Gate happened, Romania had at the very worst 500 new daily cases for a population of 19 million, while Germany regularly had 4-5000 for a population of 83 million. So i…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t the solution to increase these farms’ economies of scale? So the same civilisation-enhancing forces that drove development 10,000 years ago can show their force more broadly?
What economies of scale specifically do farms have? A farm is not a factory where you can create a uniform process...
Isn't this regular old Pareto Distribution?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t the solution to increase these farms’ economies of scale? So the same civilisation-enhancing forces that drove development 10,000 years ago can show their force more broadly?
What economies of scale specifically do farms have? A farm is not a factory where you can create a uniform process...
James Scott's "Seeing like a state" makes a fairly strong argument why big agribusiness is not as obviously the optimal choice for best use of land as a technologist (like myself) might imagine on the first blush: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_Like_a_State
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, as a simple example, you can't efficiently plow or mechanically harvest lots of land which are very small or have a weird shape. If you aggregate them, it becomes much more efficient. Same thing goes for purchasing equipment or supplies, you can buy in bulk for a large farm. Modern farms ARE factories.
What you are saying is true, but a lot of people hate the thought, since a farm has historically been a family working within a small community or a village, first and foremost for their own benefit, with the surplus going back to the village or greater society through trade or cooperation (or later by force through taxation by the Lord of the land). This was a good and healthy life that produced strong people. For t…
Historically agricultural workers were slaves or at best serfs. In any case, a brutal lifestyle, generally for someone else's benefit.
Well, what you're saying does apply to a category of countries, underdeveloped ones. Countries at very low levels of what we'd consider civilization. There people were either shepherds or subsistence farmers but closer to what we'd call hunter-gatherers.