Perhaps.
And just perhaps, the scientific community really isn't engaged in a massive conspiracy against Real Americans and there is some credence to the notion of more or less permanent man made climate change. As I said, perhaps.
But anyhoo, a human can live pretty well on a daily intake of say, a pound of grain, a few ounces of legumes, maybe an ounce of vegoil, maybe a few ounces of animal protein to make some use grass and waste such as milling byproducts, off grade grain etc. and a buttload of veggies out of the victory garden. Everybody would be healthier, too.
That would take, very liberally, maybe 10 bushels of grain or the land equivalent per person per year. For 315 million people in the USA at an average of 50 BPA it would require 60+ million acres. We currently plant and harvest, what, about 300 million, all crops?
My inspiration for those calculations was inspired by a more mundane experience than yours- I was driving I-65 from Lafayette to Chicago at 70 mph and creating a public nuisance with everybody piled up behind me. I got to thinking about the following- a car's maximum fuel economy is somewhere between 55 and 65 mph- it depends on gearing, aerodynamics etc. but not much above that as the basic property of wind resistance in immutable- it is a cubed function as velocity increases.
So sure, we could cut our fuel use another 10% and oil imports another 20 if we chose to limit speeds to 55. But my conclusion was that that particular form of waste is actually necessary to keep our suffering GDP up- whether it is pure waste or not and regardless of the externalities associated with national security, the trade deficit and the environment. For better or worse, we don't want to take that 2% hit on GDP or whatever.
Go the other way p I-69 to Fort Wayne and you'll see massive construction projects on each of the major hospitals- one on the south, one on the north side. Somebody is going to pay off those bonds. OF COURSE we could deliver better health care for 60% of the current cost- a lot of the developed world does. But what are we going to do when we have a situaion where 15% of the economy is health care and you lop off 5% of "GDP" ?
Point being, same thing for our current agricultural system. Huge waste, unhealthy and probably unsustainable but we are addicted to it or at least fearful of the costs of transition to something more sustainable.
