Re: save the world

Straydog wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jan 2006, Russell.Martin@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > Kamal R. Prasad wrote:
> >> Straydog wrote:
> >
> > snip
> >
> >> buy a piece of land,
> >
> > The last time I checked good agricultural land was costing
> > $1000 an acre in the U.S., that's without buildings. Can
> > you raise a barn?
> >
> >> a horse,
> >
> > Do you even know how to care for a horse? Most in
> > people in the West don't. Do you know how to saddle
> > and ride one? Do you have the blacksmithing skills to
> > shoe one? Can you treat it if it gets sick, because
> > veterinarians are expensive (I know).
> >
> >> some cattle and a cowboy hat.
> >
> > As they say in cattle country, you're all hat, no cattle.
> >
> >> Farming is
> >> one of the safest occupations known to mankind.
> >
> > No, at least in the U.S. farming is more dangerous compared
> > to most occupations. Quoting from the BLS website
> > http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/os/osnr0023.txt
> > "Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. While the incidence
> > rate for this sector was significantly higher than that of private
> > industry in 2004, the number of injury and illness cases, as
> > well as the incidence rate, remained relatively unchanged from
> > 2003." The figures are there if you want to dig out the details.
> > The sector number is skewed a bit by fishing, which is the
> > most hazardous occupation, but agriculture is still dangerous.
> > One is working with power equipment, dangerous chemicals,
> > sharp tools. People have been know to get buried and
> > suffocated in grain bins.
>
> Um...how about death rates among astronauts? drug runners? inner city
> youth in high crime areas?

No doubt those are not tracked by BLS.

>
>
> How to farm? Hmmmmm....maybe I should put my "Mother Earth News" magazines
> on auction on eBay? Or, does everyone -- including Kamal-- think its that
> easy?

I obviously don't.

I attended a talk about two months ago given by a farmer
who is thinking of coming to grad school here. He has a
degree in biophysics, IIRC, from a good school, but feels
he needs more agronomy background to run his farm at
the level he wants. His tractor and equipment is all
controlled by computers and GPS so he can plant and
apply chemicals at centimeter resolution while minimizing
overspray, fuel use, tire compression of the soil, etc. He
and his dad (an engineer) develop or modify their equipment
to make this work. He records crop yield by row and uses
different seed varieties in different rows to maximize yield
when he intercrops corn and soy beans. He is the kind of
guy who makes it possible for you and I to sit at computers
rather than stand in a field with a hoe in hand trying to
grow enough food that we don't starve.

Cheers,
Russell

.

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