The redneck strike again.

[Confused Ape]

That's what we use it for -now-...but how we got ourselves into this mess was getting really lucky with corn crossbreeding going back into the early 20th century. We just got better at growing corn faster than we got better at growing anything else. Once we found ourselves sitting on a mountain of corn (and the yield increases got really impressive in the 40's...which is why factory farming cropped up in the 50's.......) we had to find something to do with it. One of the things we got really good at was getting corn to grow in conditions that other crops wouldn't tolerate, and with a minimum of labor of course- especially in the case of feedcorn..which is often unfit for human consumption, but -is- the most economical use for this or that parcel of land.

Thanks for the information. All the articles about the drawbacks of factory farming concentrate on how things are today. The reasons why it got started in the first place aren't gone into with any great detail.

Unfortunately, "less corn" would not equal more human food crops - until such time as we bring the rest of our crops up to the impressive pedigree that corn is hefting around

I'm guessing that this is where Monsanto and it's rival companies come in. It's difficult finding unbiased sources for the possible dangers of GM crops but a Washington State University report paints a gloomy picture - Superweeds linked to rising herbicide use in GM crops, study finds It seems that superweeds haven't overrun Britain yet but then, there's been resistance to GM crops over here.

but it would mean less food..since there would be less meat)- AND completely overhaul our ag policy.........

The US isn't the only country which needs to overhaul its agricultural policy but will it be done sensibly? Probably not. After the disasters of factory farming and superweeds we're likely to get future disasters with genetically engineered livestock.

It's not (in the case of the US) that we couldn't grow our own food..so much as it's actually cheaper to import the food of others..and then sell ours..or produce another product (like feed for cattle).

I wonder how that's going to be affected in the future by climate change. Even though Britain grows over 50% if its own food we're still very vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Climate catastrophes in other countries will hit UK's food security, experts say

The pattern emerging with food supplies is that when a weather disaster strikes a country it holds on to the food it grows," said Herweijer. "In 2008, 25 developoing countries banned exports or increased their export taxes because of climate emergencies at home. In 2011, Russia banned food exports for a time during a heatwave. Countries protect their own food supplies in an emergency," she said.

Britain is also vulnerable because its population is expected to add more than 10m people in the next 40 years, putting added strains on farmers and supermarkets, she said. Imported foods that are particularly vulerable to climate change abroad include fruit like bananas, staple crops like wheat and commodities like cocoa. Much animal feed is also imported which suggests that the price of meat could rise if harvests are hit elsewhere.

"Climate change overseas could have impacts on the UK, greater than that from climate change at home. It's the quantity of food that we need which is the problem. We can expect the price of meat to go up. We might have to change our diets," she said.

So, it's back to meat again.

(in the interests of disclosure, I do this for a living..grow food and try to get people to squauk about changing our food policies and dietary choices..lol)

Can you recommend any websites for further information about all this? You'll know what is relevant from first hand experience.