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Old 04-21-2007, 10:00 AM
Phil153 Phil153 is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,905
Default Re: politics and food - \"everything i want to do is illegal\"

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If agribusiness is in fact unsustainable, it will stop. It's inevitable. The "problem" will fix itself. Someone will come up with some other business model.

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This is just silly. If all the topsoil has blown away in a region, or land become saline through poor irrigation practices, or gets laced with dangerous chemicals like DDT - permanent damage has been done, and the problem does not fix itself, at least not for a long time.

Your argument is like saying: If cutting down the rainforests is indeed unsustainable, it will stop. The "problem" will fix itself

The trouble, pvn, is that there will be no more rainforest remaining, which is very bad for the world economy and future generations.

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People ARE willing to pay more for it, and the market DOES supply it.

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Yes, I said as much.

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What's the hole? That not enough people share your preferences? The history of mankind is *built* on "unsustainable" activity. Yet progress continues. Unsustainability is what drives improvement.

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Actually, no. Previously unlimited resources is what has sustained unfettered capitalism. But those limits are approaching for the first time in history - with oil, with forests, with ecosystems, with arable land, with clean air.

The hole is people not realizing or not caring about the burdens they have to bear until it's too late. Consumers are simply stupid when it comes to complex issues where benefits aren't easily realized. And the nature of capitalism means that someone will always chase a buck - and damn the consequences. You yourself agree that the market can supply almost everything that people want to buy. If the thing that people want to buy is the last skin of an Asian lion, or the last ivory of an African elephant, someone will supply it, if not kept in check.

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If you want stagnation, you can have it, nobody will stop you.

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Long term sustainability is not stagnation. But it does cost, and people simply aren't smart enough to pay it. Fast food proves that.
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