
How the growth of cities changes farming - johnny313
https://www.economist.com/news/international/21737046-soaring-demand-protein-driving-small-and-medium-sized-farms-professionalise-how
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hutzlibu
Well, I just read a different article about Bangladesh and the fish farms.
Even though with the focus on leather industry. (german:
[https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Bangladesch-Der-Mensch-
fris...](https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Bangladesch-Der-Mensch-frisst-sich-
selber-auf-3972291.html))

Basically, there is a side to this, not mentioned in the economist: that
flooding former rice fields with seawater, makes them logically salty - and
not only them, but the whole area. You can't grow much in salty ground. So
this is destroying farmland. Not very sustainable. I fail to see any goodness
in such a short term strategy for quick profit. Especially not when the real
sea is big enough for all the aquafarming you want.. Oh and the fish are
getting fed with toxic leftovers from the leather-industry.

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jimmywanger
This especially happens for shrimp. In Thailand, farmers are lured in by high
short term profits for farming shrimp, so they clear a lot of biodiverse
mangrove swamp. When they realize that shrimp are a bitch to raise in
densities that make it profitable, they end up selling the land to
professional shrimp farmers, who grow the shrimp with lots of antibiotics and
specialized shrimp feed.

After a while, the shrimp parasites and diseases are endemic to the land, so
the pros just leave and find someplace else cheap to buy. Meanwhile, the land
is ruined, as shrimp live in brackish water, the salted land is no good for
agriculture, and it takes decades for the mangroves to grow back again.

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daodedickinson
What about how settlements tend to start near fresh water and fertile soil? If
a city grows, eventually all the best farmland gets covered in buildings that
don't need to be built on fertile soil. I wonder if it would be better for
non-agricultural populations to live somewhere with water but less fertile
soil.

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CapitalistCartr
>The grains will be bought by farmers, who will grind them into pellets for
fish and cattle. “Twenty-five years ago, people were starving for want of
this,” he says, marvelling. “Now we feed it to animals.”

Capitalistic, industrialized farming is coming fast to these countries. Food
production will explode.

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snarkyturtle
Also why efforts to influence meat production for global warming's sake is
kind of meaningless because so many of these countries are coming into the
modern world, transitioning from a low-protein diet to a high-protein diet,
increasing demand and meat production. The same goes for efforts to curtail
plastic use.

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avdempsey
If you can make a transition to a high protein, mostly plant-based diet work
in the U.S., then that gives you an existential proof that it would someday be
possible for countries further back in the consumption curve.

At the same time, we also have evidence that “leapfrog” development can
happen, e.g. France’s Minitel phase is something the U.S. skipped.

Figuring out a desirable reduced meat lifestyle (people have to want it for
themselves) then appears to be highly relevant to combat global warming.

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adrianN
I have high hopes for lab grown meat.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
It probably wouldn't look much different from a modern poultry farm.

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adrianN
Minus the brains, so no suffering. Hopefully also more energy efficient.

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curun1r
TL;DR cities have so much more money that there's an initial boom as farmers
fill the need to feed the cities. Eventually, the market responds and farmers
are challenged by razor-thin margins and turn to technology to become more
efficient. The net result is higher population and fewer problems feeding
everybody.

