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correction - big food industry is needed to feed MEAT to a dense population. you can feed a lot more people grains than you can meat - for a lot less cost. that being said - it's a lot less tasty too and after 13 years of being a vegetarian, i like to eat meat once a day. turning the world into veg heads isn't a viable solution.

but don't you think there's a way to farm, feed people AND minimize the spread of disease? you're a smart person. you honestly want me to believe that there is no better way to feed the population and that we have not progressed in the past 600 or so years?

it really comes down to ethics - or lack thereof. big agriculture wants everything done as quickly and cheaply as possible so they can have huge profits. but at what cost? the cost of disease + mistreatment of workers. (meatpacking is one of the most dangerous industries. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11806 - or do your own search)

as far as population control, that's a whole new can of worms. stick to the subject at hand

Population control is the kernel of the subject at hand.

The one thing that this large population is running on, the real kernel of the subject is CORN! It feeds the cattle in the dairy industry and the meat industry. It feeds the chickens that make the eggs and that are consumed by us. Corn also is responsible for a high fraction of our body's carbon content and the energy we burn at the crag. We get it in the form of high fructose corn syrup; it is present in all processed foods.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537

Corn was responsible for the population boom in Southern North America and Northern South America in the Maya (250-900 AD); and the Inca and Aztec (1400-1600 AD) empires. You are talking about technical and scientific progress, but isn't it interesting that with all of that progress, like the most basic form of life, we are reliant on that same little monocotyledon. We are like insects specializing in the consumption of one thing. The thrust of our food-science advancements in terms of genetic engineering, artificial nitrogen fixation (Haber–Bosch) for fertilizer and more efficient farming have been to raise more corn.

Josie, I don't think we can decentralize food production and support the current state of world wide civilization. I am not 100% certain of that . . . I agree with you that if people would eat less meat the current population would be easier to feed, but then again the population would likely grow. I am fairly certain that we quickly get back to the kernel of the argument, controlling the population to a level well below what the earth's limits are.

I have not eaten a single product with HFCS in over a month.

To the music of Sly & the Family Stone wrote: You can make it if you try

bcombs wrote:I have not eaten a single product with HFCS in over a month.

To the music of Sly & the Family Stone wrote: You can make it if you try

Why the hell not?? HFCS tastes GOOOOOOOD!

And it makes you send harder.

Cmon man, people are going to take you seriously and the whole climbing community will wind up being fat asses.

Wait.... maybe that's a good thing. Yeah, that's it!

Attention: All the folks ahead of me in the ranks. HFCS will make you send harder. Two letter grades per item consumed daily. So get started right away!

There, that should do it.

bcombs wrote:Cmon man, people are going to take you seriously and the whole climbing community will wind up being fat asses.

Wait.... maybe that's a good thing. Yeah, that's it!

Attention: All the folks ahead of me in the ranks. HFCS will make you send harder. Two letter grades per item consumed daily. So get started right away!

There, that should do it.

I eat tons of HFCS every day. I am fatter than you. I send harder than you. I have more points than you. Reality check: you just suck as a climber. Please choose another "sport".

Dang!

crap, i just wet my pants looking at your tick list. i, in fact, do not send harder than you. who cares...my delusional state is much more fun.

Caribe, you're a scientist, couldn't you do something about this superabundance of corn? Maybe you could solve the overpopulation problem by bio-engineering some new corn disease. Or maybe you could control the weather to wipe out the food supply. Maybe even cause huge floods in the midwest to inundate this year's cro...., oh, you evil son-of-a-bitch, you.

LDay: Any policy/action that increases suffering and devalues life is something I can't support. I realize that your tongue is in your check though. The population issues needs to be a long term plan.