{"id":16578,"date":"2012-08-22T09:22:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T14:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=16578"},"modified":"2012-08-22T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T14:26:12","slug":"the-good-old-days-were-actually-pretty-crappy-for-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/08\/22\/the-good-old-days-were-actually-pretty-crappy-for-most\/","title":{"rendered":"“The good old days” were actually pretty crappy for most"},"content":{"rendered":"

An excerpt from The Locavore\u2019s Dilemma<\/em> by Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu in the National Post<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

To a locavore, food in the future should be created pretty much like it was in the not-so-distant past: produce and animals raised lovingly in urban backyards, turning domestic waste into hearty dishes. Farmers\u2019 markets in every small town and city neighbourhood, where people rediscover the joys of real food and get reacquainted with one another. The rebuilding of small-scale slaughterhouses and canning factories to serve area producers and foster the preservation of local food items for consumption in the off-season.<\/p>\n

Ideally, this local system would also be built on seeds saved from the previous harvest rather than purchased from giant corporate seed producers; ancient \u201cheirloom\u201d cultivars developed before synthetic fertilizers and pesticides became available and that, as a result, are better able to seek nutrients in the soil, don\u2019t require any chemicals and are naturally resilient to drought and pests (\u201cIf it\u2019s old seed, it\u2019s good seed!\u201d); and \u201cheritage\u201d animal breeds better able to withstand diseases and harsh environments and grow fat and happy on pastureland alone. Pest control would be achieved through traditional \u201cnatural\u201d products based on plants and minerals; manual labour, such as crushing or picking bugs and larvae off foliage or removing weeds by hands; and biological control methods, such as introducing exotic animals, insects and bacteria that feed on invasive pests. Finally, factory-made fertilizers would be replaced by animal manure and rotating fodder crops, such as clover and alfalfa.<\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it possible that crushing bugs and removing weeds by hands were neither very effective nor the most productive use of one\u2019s time? That seeds purchased from commercial suppliers offered access to superior genetic material, were not mixed up with unwanted material and were readily available when needed? That \u201cnatural\u201d manure has always been dirty, smelly, chock-full of pathogens and requires several months of composting? That the \u201cslow release\u201d of nutrients from green manures and organic compost could never be as adequately controlled to match crop demands with nutrient supply as is now possible with synthetic fertilizers? Further, that old mineral (including arsenic) and plant-based pesticides were less harmful to plant pests (and thereby more likely to promote insect resistance) and more problematic to human health than more recent offerings? That introducing nonnative insects, mammals and bacteria in a new ecosystem often had unintended, broader and longer-lasting negative consequences for nontargeted species? And that, unlike chemical pesticides that typically do not persist in an ecosystem once application has ceased, exotic insects who have successfully adapted to a new environment are practically impossible to eradicate and do not remain confined to one geographical location? In the end, why are modern agricultural producers willing to purchase costly synthetic inputs, hormonal growth promoters, antibiotics and genetically modified seeds when the methods agri-intellectuals prefer are either completely free (such as giving up on the use of these inputs and on equipment such as poultry housing) or seemingly much cheaper (such as feeding cattle entirely on pastureland and saving one\u2019s seeds instead of relying on those marketed by specialized producers)?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ontario’s ban on a large number of pesticides and herbicides for domestic use is re-acquainting many home owners with the joys of hand-weeding their lawns. It’s getting to the point that Ontario’s provincial flower might as well be the dandelion, as they’re everywhere<\/em>. There’s a reason<\/em> your ancestors couldn’t wait to get off the farm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An excerpt from The Locavore\u2019s Dilemma by Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu in the National Post: To a locavore, food in the future should be created pretty much like it was in the not-so-distant past: produce and animals raised lovingly in urban backyards, turning domestic waste into hearty dishes. Farmers\u2019 markets in every small town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,25,65,74,66,7,28],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-16578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-economics","category-environment","category-food","category-health-science","category-history","category-media","tag-nostalgia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4jo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16580,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578\/revisions\/16580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}