Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: Turns out those old-fashioned ways of farming were actually pretty smart [View all]bhikkhu
(10,716 posts)and I wish there was more comprehension of the argument here. The claim is that old traditional bio-intensive and labor intensive methods produce the largest yield per acre.
The scale of the operations is such that there has never been any direct transition that I can imagine. A mechanized farm is only practical on a scale of thousands of acres. A tradition labor intensive farm is only practical on a scale of tens of acres. Its a whole different type of thing, and a whole different type of economy. A traditional farm is densely populated, and the goal is what you might call "prosperous self sufficience" rather than simple profit. The yield per acre supports a local population which labors there first, then goes to market. The goals are different, the type of market is different, and there is no direct transition without a complete change in how the values are considered.