I only buy free range eggs…because I hate the idea of the hens cooped up all day on egg production.

…and I eat the best quality produce I can buy.

I remember the day I viewed the ‘countryside’ differently. I was 23 and someone who called himself a farmer. I couldn’t believe he had the gall to call himself by that name…all his ‘cattle’ were kept confined to a shed…they never grazed in British pastures.

less people=less food production

Elaine, i do what i can. Unfortunately, those battery hens make up the majority of hens. But if you look around, you can find farmers who do things well. And you won’t believe how much different real meat/poultry/eggs taste.

I’d love to wax nostalgic and hopeful about agriculture, but i promised the second half of my day off to a close friend. So i’m off to a friendly Ohmstead where the chickens chicken like they were meant to (which may or may not include sexually molesting the resident cat) and there is fencing to be put up and the finishing touches on a new, four-season greenhouse. No pay, but i’ll come home with a broiler or two and some eggs….and maybe some rabbit meat.

For more information, see http://www.terrawatts.com

…for a moment there you made me forget about battery hens.

The Sahara idea really does sound like a win-win. I’m reminded of the feud between Edison and Tesla over AC/DC. It’s probably too late to go back and change our minds on that decision.

I do think that solutions like TREC are what we need to look at, but i always hesitate when something feels like a silver bullet. Wouldn’t the Sahara project be much more feasible if EU buildings were generating as much of their own energy as possible? Wouldn’t it make sense to keep those windfarms?

The argument about eating less meat is solid, but it’s also based on a fallacy. While it is true that we use far too much land/energy to feed meat, we should keep in mind that our method of livestock farming is not the only (or even traditional) way to do it. Actually grazing livestock is environmentally beneficial. The crops are “no-till” and often perennial. The livestock actually replace a great deal of farm machinery and industrial output. The cow not only produces the fertilizer, but also spreads it; if poultry is then grazed behind the cattle, the birds further spread the fertilizer, get protein from the grubs that hatch in it, and add more fertilizer (fertilizer that compliments the fertilizer from the cow).

None of that changes that fact that eating less meat makes the most sense; in fact, returning to grazed meat would probably require eating less meat. But replacing meat with grains for human consumption does not improve the situation much…agriculturally or environmentally. Right now, well farmed meat is more expensive, but if you eat less of it then it is affordable.

For those who might be interested, the section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Pollan) on Polyface Farms is an excellent description of how a livestocking operation can be run.

“The oil of the 21st century is not buried deep within the earth. Instead, it falls on its surface — as sunshine.” Wonderful two sentences…although I realise not yours.

If I could I would solar panel my house today!

Doc – I think you finally developed your barbecue recipe enough to let others eat it after I’d left the ranks of the quasi-vegetarians.

In the long term, I think cheap, even disposable, solar cells will be the de facto means that we will get our power. For a couple hundred dollars and a few hours of do-it-yourself anyone can put it up on their roof and connect it to the local grid. The power company will pay you for the surplus and you can take what you need from them during the night. We’ll just have to wait until the printing press gets set up.

This week’s issue: powering Europe from the Sahara; Berkeley CA has a new way to finance household solar; eat low on the food chain to reduce CO2 emissions; climate prediction for 10 years out attempted; nuclear not as CO2-friendly as industry claims…