[Cob] Re: Coblist Digest, Vol 2, Issue 13

[Jennifer Hileman-Reinhart]

i think what my quote meant is that perhaps the increase has been 
exponential and the benefits have not matched that. Yields have not 
increased tenfold or eightfold or anything close to the increases in 
chemical treatments to crop land.
My opinions are always changing as I learn more and I find myself 
convinced that recent farming practices are out of balance.
I am sorry, this has little to with cob and I apologize to everyone who 
has found it irrelevant.

Please note that all future feedback, criticism and judgment about off 
topic issues can be directed to me personally rather than boring 
everyone on a cob list.
thanks
jenn



On Feb 15, 2004, at 11:53 PM, coblist-request at deatech.com wrote:

>> Although insecticide use in the U.S. increased more than tenfold since
>> 1945 to date, crop losses to insects have nearly doubled during this
>> period.
>>
>> - David Pimintell, Ph.D., Cornell University
>
>     What you failed to mention was that yields MORE than doubled.  Your
> carefully selected quote was, I assume, to leave the reader with the
> impression that, had insecticide use remained at 1949 levels, we would 
> have
> lower insect crop losses.  The truth, of course, is that insecticides 
> are,
> whether you like it or not, an integral part of that increase.  The 
> data:
>
> 1)  "...since 1940, the average annual rate of gain (in U.S. corn 
> yields)
> has been about 1.8 bu/ac/yr"  -  W.E. Larson and V.B. Cardwell, 
> University
> of Minnesota
>
> 2)  Crop yields, bushels per acre:
>
>                   Corn    Soybeans
>
> 1950-59         43         21
> 1960-69         71         25
> 1970-79         90         28
> 1980-89        105        30
> 1990-94        120        36      - 
> www.agcom.purdue.edu/AgCom/news/archives
>
> 3)  "We saw that between 1950 and 1981, there was about a 24% increase 
> in
> cultivated acreage. However, over that same interval, WORLD grain 
> yields per
> ha more than DOUBLED as indicated in Figure 2, below."
>
> "Between 1950 - 1990, grainland productivity (yields per ha) rose more 
> than
> 2% per year, at least matching and generally exceeding the rate of
> population growth."
>
> - World Watch Institute
>
>
> ".The contribution of science is to enlarge beyond all former bounds 
> the
> evidence we must take account of before forming our opinions. Today's
> opinions may not be the same as yesterday's, because they are based on
> fuller or better evidence. We should quite often have occasion to say 
> "I
> used to think that once, but now I have come to hold a rather different
> opinion." People who never say as much are either ineffectual or
> dangerous." - P. Medawar
>
> Kyle Towers
>
>
>
>
>