After some comments about Mr .Michael Moore beliefs ,some here raised the topic of population control.This America we are Blessed with has the ability to feed huge numbers more than we are now feeding. I am fairly sure over %50 of our ag production go to livestock feed. We all like that meat and if necessary we could cut that consumption way back ! I had 200 bu of barley in a bin and A Priest from India was visiting our place he asked what was in the bin and wanted to see it.He asked what I was going to do with it ,I said I was going to finish feed some late lambs we had ,He said if we had this in India we would eat it !Americans live very high we are a spoiled and pampered bunch of sissies .There could be a time when we would have to change our ways and that would bring us back to our roots much for the better . This post is not directed to the majority of the members here but more so the affluent urban dwellers in particular .Thats my sermon for next 3 months .

Alot of ag groung can grow feed but not food. Different crops with different maturity timez. Not saying that food production couldn't be increased but not a trade acre for acre.

Do you know why we eat meat? Cause we CAN. Should you want to eat rice for breakfast, dinner and supper just so you are not "pampered" go for it, I will eat high on the hog.

Not often you hear meat eaters called sissies.

You would be wrong. It's well under, in the 30s I believe.

Feeding live stock with grain doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is feeding the oil industry with corn at tax payers expense when it doesn’t benefit the consumer or the oil industry. We have no where to store oil at this time and when we do, it is at great expense. The consumer has a choice to buy and consume beef, pork, etc., but no choice to avoid ethanol. Moreover, it costs more and consumes more energy to produce ethanol than it would to eliminate it altogether. Remember, this whole system started because we were told that fossil fuels were running out.

What does America look like with over 400 million in population? Think our great grandkids will have more or less hunting fishing trapping opportunities? I don’t want another housing development. I don’t want another WalMart. I don’t want more trash and pollution. India is an absolute cess pool and China right behind because they have too many people. Folks that is where we’re headed. At the very least stop immigration and let’s get a number in the ballpark of what we think we can handle before it’s too late. And PS, there is no hunting allowed in those two countries. No one ever has an idea of what this number is. No one ever responds to this outside of calling me names. America is famous for her wide open spaces and freedom. Rest assured, if this continues those two things will be something children have downloaded into their educational history micro chips.

X2

Grain grown for livestock production is far less that grain produced for human consumption worldwide. The U.S. has the resources and capacity to produce more than is required to feed the hungry on this planet. O
Distribution of food is the problem in most, if not all of the third world countries where hunger is prevalent. Availability of good, clean water is another issue as well.

Too many well fed people criticize various aspects of agricultural production here in the U.S. qhile living inside the city limits. These same folks think milk comes from a bottle, meat from the store, vegetables from a market, etc.
Last time I looked, I believe less than 2% of the population in the U.S. lives in rural America and is involved in the actual production of food & fiber.
I have worked in agriculture my entire adult life, still live on my farm and I con't to be amazed at how little people know about real life outside the city.

Tradervic well said. I will inject that there are millions of Acres not utilized and food destruct thousands of miles around the country most of which is unnecessary. That leaves 2 tons I've wasted money in fuel and transportation cost.

A lot of your food can be grown locally and support your local small farmer and community. It always floors me looking all these 10-acre yards in 5 acre yard mowed looking like a golf course with no animals no stock no Garden completely wasted on Aesthetics. There's more than enough unused land to feed most people in that City just in yards. At least in the Suburban areas.

Unfortunately the same city folks that want to buy Organics and know nothing about Rural Life are the same ones that pass homeowner restrictions in and government regulations that make it nearly impossible for a beginning small farmer to get started in Prosper. You know the kind that move to the country driving up property prices and taxes, then decide they don't like the neighbors live stock, eye sore scrap pile, conex storage solution and get on the boards and do their best to turn the country living they wanted into the city life they left. After all they know what's best for the farmers and live stock.


For example zoning rules and regulations that preclude a family of having a small flock of laying hens or Garden in their front or back yard and of course regulations on meat processing in being able to sell raw milk.

For more in-depth look on that in a humorous read check out Joel salatin everything I want to do is illegal the Great Book

This is an interesting topic. It depends where you do your research but it has been stated that 35% goes to livestock and over 50% to livestock. Some places I looked said 70% of soybeans go to livestock. Either way, a lot of grain gets fed to livestock. We must take time to step back for a second and realize that a lot of grain fed to livestock is not fit for human consumption either. Not every bushel of feed was necessarily intended as feed but circumstances that occurred whether it be freezing or poor storage etc, led it to the feedlot.

In the future, agricultural practices will change, as they always have and new technologies and plant and animal sciences allow for that knowledge. What exactly that will look like I do not know.
Currently we in Canada grow 21 million acres of Canola and 90% of that is exported outside the country as oil or meal for livestock food. I'd like to think that someday there is a crop that can have equal profit margins to farmers as canola but does more to nourish humans than to make the oil we deep fry chicken nuggets in.

I've read more than once and from different sources that the healthiest (physically anyway) that Americans have ever been was during WWII with food rationing (actually just about everything was rationed).
Anyway, with food rationing everyone had a garden to supplement their dietary needs.

Yep, maybe we should mow way less grass and produce our own fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc. A secondary beneifit is physical exercise, less anxiety, etc.

I would love to see more grazing land and less tillable. We could continue to eat a generous amount of meat and it would be better environmentally. Driving through parts of the midwest it looks like a black tilled up desert, mostly devoid of life. Driving through areas devoted to grazing you see alot more biodiversity and better environmental health. Maybe its time to stop subsidizing grain so much.

Maybe it's time to stop subsidizing all businesses.

This!

Maybe it's time some of you under stand what subsidies are.

Welfare, vote buying, Marxist redistribution, take your pick.

Until the issue of our burgeoning population is addressed the issue of land use will only worsen. When another 100 million people are added to our population kiss our current wildlife conservation regs goodbye, maybe an all out ban on any sport hunting and fishing. It’s coming folks but by all means let’s continue arguing over the symptoms of over population and do nothing for a cure.

Ok, first off - are you talking about over population here in our Lower 48 or somewhere else ? What do you propose be done to curb over population ?

The United States alone has more than 2.4 billion acres with 350 million people. There are only 8 billion people in the world. I will just leave that there for some thought.

I wouldn't worry much about over population. A big war, natural disaster, virus/plague something always comes along.
What I do worry about it the continued growth of freedom hating, government dependent, nanny state worshippers. Independent thinking selfie reliant people not a problem.

Yep.......X2.......big time !