While not always as kind and friendly as we could be, this discussion has stirred a little more thought and maybe even some learning about the broader aspects of agriculture/farming/ranching than we know on or about our own little piece of the world, which ultimately has to be an improvement. How did we get to be such narrow thinkers, anyway?
For instance, a very few years ago, maybe five, surely not so much as ten, we began to see some corn planted in northern Jackson County, SD. Horrors! Corn couldn't succeed here without irrigation! But it did. We forgot that our own SD State U has a very active research into all sorts of crops. Seed has been developed (likely for many crops) which can thrive with much less water than the traditional corn grown 'east of the river' in SD. We may not get the same yields out here, but we have bought a little of the 'local' corn and it worked just fine for our short term feeding needs as we backgrounded our calves through the last few winters. There was a considerable savings in miles transported, which decreases the 'carbon footprint', we are told.
We probably haven't all noticed that research into how to irrigate more effectively, with less water, has been at least as active as finding how to fine tune the fertilization, weed and disease control, and all the other means anyone uses to grow the animal and people food necessary for the people of this world.
Why do we persist in thinking those who may raise crops differently, or who may do the research to develop improved ways to save our crops from pests of various sorts and to 'do more with less' (crop inputs) must have nefarious, hidden goals in mind to somehow profit unjustly?
Why and how did profit become such an epithet, anyway ?
mrj