The redneck strike again.

[The Grand Nudger]

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.

Which is unfortunate, because it's generally good to know how one got into a mess, if one hopes to get out of it eh.

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.

Actually..Big Ag was once a monolithic block. Most of the players you find now are pieces of that monolith that were forcibly broken apart from the 40's onward for a variety of reasons. The dangers of GM are the dangers of any tech, as are the benefits. Risk v. Reward.

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.

I'm an optimist. I figure we'll get it wrong in some pretty dramatic ways here and there..but overall..like rural electrification - we'll enrich our lives with GMos. I'm also an optimist with regards to changes to policy. If nothing else we'll simply be -forced- to set smarter policies as the cost of production increases.

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.

We cover alot of ground. Ag will just move with the weather - like it has always done. I'm sure it won't be fun..unless you're one of the guys that finally gets to grow strawberries when the zones become more favorable. Some places may - for the first time in a long time - be able to support agriculture...which is great for those folks. Others will get the shaft - but since we have a distributed production system.... ultimately it will be a matter of logistics as to how it pans out, not ag-proper. Shipping, not farming.

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

Sites specific to ag? Or sites specific to changing food policy?

You can never go wrong with the USDA (or whatever agency you have where you're at), your local universities ag extension, ATTRA...and I'm sure that there are plenty of think tanks pushing this or that policy online. I don't know if there's a site that puts a broad view on it like I've tried to in this thread.