F.A. Farm

For the last two weeks I have been watching the Copenhagen Climate Conference via Democracy Now! on the web. It has been very disappointing. Even though there is no disagreement on the science of global warming, many countries are unwilling to make a binding agreement on reducing emissions. The reparations, aka climate debt, were essentially a red herring. I doubt anyone expected the EU or the US to actually make payments of the magnitude needed. However, the issue is now polarized, as millions of people in the global south face a death sentence due to climate-enhanced drought and deterioration of regular monsoons. Since Saudi Arabia, China and other countries are buying up land leases in Africa and fencing them off for industrial food production, the dieoff is likely to be telescoped even further. How does this impact farming in the US? We need to reduce our own emissions as much as we can. Back in 1965, an Indian delegate to the UN asserted that a child born in the US burns up more planetary resources than one born in India. It is likely even worse now. For those of you who buy on price alone, you might want to consider supporting farmers who are reducing their energy use. Every reduction in energy usage on the farm or on the highway reduces our carbon footprint. This gives starving people in Africa a little more room to breath and to live.