Losing Ground
July 7, 2024 Leave a comment
Land utilization and farming came into view during the past few months.
This spring, two housing developments sprung up near my home. Both residential sites are located on a small amount of previously open and undeveloped acreage. Multi-level multi-family townhomes were built on both sites.
The site nearest my home has ten three-story multiplexes. Three units are six-family across and seven units are five-family across. I imagine that from a drone’s aerial view the development would look like ten brown Monopoly hotels all crowded onto a single board property.
As of today, all of the townhomes are sold except for two. And that has me wondering why anyone would spend the kind of money they are asking to live in a townhome on a densely occupied tree-less lot next to a busy state highway and across from a bowling alley and surrounded by commercial enterprises including a car dealership, a cell phone store, and fast-food restaurants.
The other housing development, just down the road from me, is built on one corner of an intersection.
There are seven two-story structures – four are duplexes and three are single family townhomes. The second story space is reduced by a double-pitched roof, making it a small bedroom or an attic with a window.
The seven buildings are arranged three-in-a row facing three-in-a row: duplex – single – duplex with one single family townhome sitting at the end facing down between the two rows. The townhomes are bunched together on just a handful of acres. I can walk across the property in forty seconds.
Between the three units in a row there is roughly twelve feet of grass. Between the front doors of the two rows of units that face each other there is roughly twenty-five feet of grass with a sidewalk like a main street going down the middle. A driveway circles around the back of the seven duplexes to connect with the garages. And that, not the once grassy open space, is what one sees from the intersection.
The small white townhomes are odd-looking – like play houses built for a close-knit family of dolls. I imagine little people living there.
Both of these nearby housing projects had me wondering about land use. What was presented to the city. Did the city actually agree to use up these open spaces for these quirky looking residential units? Did the city want more tax revenue and so they OK’d these revolting developments?
I understand the need for new housing and new development. I understand that developers will develop and city planners will plan. What I don’t understand is jamming things together and a lack of aesthetic judgement. The loss of open pastoral space and the filling of it with replicative boxes touched me in some visceral way. I need to explore this in another post.
Another bit of land use, or maybe I should say land abuse, came into focus these past months as I watched the first three seasons of Clarkson’s Farm – that’s Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddley Squat farm.
According to Jeremy Clarkson | The Jeremy Clarkson Fansite
Jeremy Clarkson is best known for his work as a presenter on the BBC TV show “Top Gear.”
“Top Gear” become synonymous with adrenaline-fueled challenges, witty banter, and heart-pounding car reviews.
JC ventured into agrarian life with his TV series “Clarkson’s Farm,” which debuted on Amazon Prime Video in 2021. The series follows Clarkson as he attempts to run a 1,000-acre farm in the Cotswolds, despite having no prior farming experience. The show provides an honest, humorous look at the challenges of modern farming, from uncooperative weather to complex agricultural machinery, showcasing Clarkson’s journey of successes, failures, and learning alongside his charismatic farmhand, Kaleb Cooper.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon TV Show – Clarkson’s Farm. I learned a bit about farming. Clarkson deals with crops, animal husbandry, a huge number of regulations and trying to eke out a profit. I found the program far more interesting than a farming documentary.
Note: Clarkson, who is quite a character, habitually punctuates his setbacks and unpleasant surprises with a curse.
WHAT DOES A FARMER THINK OF CLARKSON’S FARM? (youtube.com)
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Land Use:
From an AGWeb report By SARA SCHAFER July 29, 2022:
From 2001 to 2016, the U.S. lost or compromised 2,000 acres of farmland and ranchland every day. That adds up to 11 million acres of farmland that has been paved over, fragmented or developed, according to research by American Farmland Trust.
If that trend continues, and another 18.4 million acres is converted between 2016 and 2040 — an area nearly the size of South Carolina . . .
“Nearly half of the conversion will occur on the nation’s most productive, versatile and resilient farmland,” says John Piotti, president of American Farmland Trust.
Surface Pressure: U.S. Losing Farmland at Alarming Rate | AgWeb
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Is the U.S. Running Out of Farmland?
Here’s an Ambrook Research Podcast w/Sarah K Mock, a freelance agriculture writer, podcaster, and author of Big Team Farms and Farm (and Other F Words) who answers that question.
Advocates are sounding the alarm — we’re losing millions of acres of farmland, and it’s an existential threat to our food supply. How worried should we be?
Is the U.S. Running Out of Farmland? | Ambrook Research
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James and Helen Rebanks talk about raising sheep and cattle in the Lake District. James describes the landscape where their families have lived for six hundred years, and how they have begun practicing regenerative agriculture as a way of restoring the land that recent conventional agriculture had damaged. He gives details about the sheep and cattle herds and the grazing systems they’ve established.
Then Helen describes what led her to write her book on the work of the farmer’s wife, and addresses mothers, who are often the ones making choices about food that are linked to questions of sustainable agriculture.
PloughCast 82: Regenerative Agriculture in the Lake District with James and Helen Rebanks
The PloughCast: a podcast from Plough Quarterly
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A July 1, 2024 Indiana Capital Chronicle article reports that . . .
Indiana lost about 345,700 acres of farmland to other purposes between 2010 and 2022, but agricultural productivity still increased, the state found in a study released Monday.
Most of it was lost to residential development around the edges of cities and suburban areas, according to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
The state’s five biggest farmland losers included Allen, Elkhart, Jefferson, Knox and Monroe counties.
Lawmakers last year tasked the Indiana State Department of Agriculture with creating the inventory.
The agency recommended the following:
- Due to a steady increase in population and continued economic growth, ISDA recommends the legislature pass legislation directing ISDA to update the Inventory of Lost Farmland every five years, starting in 2029 for a report to be published in 2030.
- Consider prime farmland and its location in Indiana including the total number of acres in the state. According to USDA, in 2017 Indiana had approximately 12.56 million acres of prime cropland, pastureland, forestland, and other rural land.
- Involve local units of government in the farmland preservation conversation. Indiana is a homerule state, and most land use decisions are made at the local level. No two counties are the same and neither are their comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances or land use decisions.
- Consider what is an alarming level of lost farmland acres as it pertains to food security. When should a county, state or the country be concerned?
- Consider advances in technology and innovation that have allowed farms to produce more with less acres.
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Regenerative Farming
Regen: the next decade – FAI Farms
Wilder Doddington is at the start of a hundred year project to bring more nature back to the Doddington Estate – working to restore ecosystems to benefit people and nature. In this programme ffinlo Costain is joined by Wilder Doddington’s Isobel Wright and the independent farm advisor, Liz Genever, who’s working with Isobel and advising on cattle management. The conversation ranges from the exciting activity at Wilder Doddington to a discussion about some of the more controversial aspects of the rewilding movement.
Where the wilder things are – FAI Farms
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Be aware: The over ten million illegal aliens who have invaded our borders will overload healthcare systems in the U.S. These systems will go bankrupt. Taxpayers will be expected to make up the shortfall.
The report states that the Biden administration funneled tens of millions of taxpayer money to facilitate illegal entry into the U.S. and also provided “support services” to illegal foreign nationals “at the expense of border security and public safety.”. . .
A separate Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report found that “emergency services for undocumented aliens” added up to $7 billion in fiscal 2021 and $5.4 billion in fiscal 2022, with taxpayer money funding at least $8 billion in improper Medicaid payouts (10% of the nation’s total of $80 billion).
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A Man of Fortitude:
The decision had been widely expected after the former nuncio to the United States refused to participate in the trial against him, saying that he “did not recognize the authority” of the dicastery or its prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, or Pope Francis. (Emphasis mine.)
Archbishop Viganò excommunicated for schism | America Magazine
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Health – there’s a certain point in your life when you make a shift:
I Had NO Idea This Spiked Blood Sugar (youtube.com)
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“Walk Like A Joe Biden” – (Walk Like An Egyptian Parody) | Louder With Crowder (youtube.com)
Dogmatic adherence to Leftism makes you anti-science, racist, and sick in the head:
Reality:
Cindy Wity 
Degrowth Me Not
August 20, 2023 Leave a comment
Impending doom. It’s in the mouths of Climate Change activists and environmentalists. It’s in the mythos eschatology of those who want to return to primitive times – proponents of the axial age, the age of a dark green religion and Degrowth. It’s in the marketing of the WEF, WHO, and ESG. With a select focus on impending doom, the need for sweeping “solutions” follows. And with sweeping “solutions” follows chaos and destruction.
I have previously posted about the WEF, the WHO, and ESG. Let’s now take a brief look at the thinking behind Degrowth with its impetus of impending doom.
On economic anthropologist Jason Hickel’s web site we learn that “The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse” and “There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: degrowth.”
In a book review of Jason Hickel’s Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, we are told that the book will “serve as a gloomy yet crucial reminder of the truly existential catastrophe life on Earth is facing.”
On the Degrowth website we find a definition (with sweeping conjecture):
“Degrowth is an idea that critiques the global capitalist system which pursues growth at all costs, causing human exploitation and environmental destruction. The degrowth movement of activists and researchers advocates for societies that prioritize social and ecological well-being instead of corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption. This requires radical redistribution, reduction in the material size of the global economy, and a shift in common values towards care, solidarity and autonomy. Degrowth means transforming societies to ensure environmental justice and a good life for all within planetary boundaries.” (Emphasis mine.)
Elsewhere . . .
What is ‘degrowth’ and how can it fight climate change?
The cure for a changing climate could be a stagnant economy. (Emphasis mine.)
“Degrowth, at its essence, is an alternative to capitalism, [Timothée]Parrique says. But what it absolutely is not, he says, is a planned recession on purpose. Not only does pausing economies for a moment do pretty little for the climate crisis (look how ineffective COVID-19 was at reducing emissions long-term), but it also hits the poorest and most vulnerable people first.
“Parrique says to picture economies like people with metabolisms—when you’re young, you need to eat lots of food, and as a result, produce lots of waste, to get big and strong. But if you keep eating like a rapidly-growing human well into adulthood, that’s probably not the healthiest way to be. As an adult, it makes more sense to balance out your diet for sustaining your body’s current needs.”
Degrowth, explained. | Popular Science (popsci.com) by Sara Kiley Watson
And . . .
Economic growth is leading to overconsumption and climate change. Degrowth argues that shrinking our economies can have benefits. Degrowth – BBC Worklife
Why “De-growth” Shouldn’t Scare Businesses (hbr.org)
What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification (columbia.edu)
Degrowth Buzzwords: Beyond Growth, Net Zero, Absolute Zero, Emissions, Sustainability
In short, degrowth, “an alternative to capitalism”, is communism. Degrowth is Marxism with Malthusian planning. Its outworking is as a Communist death cult. Its premise: Too many people and too much consumption means the end of Mother Earth. So, you must stop living, i.e., become Net Zero, to produce a sustainable earth.
Degrowth is Communism – YouTube
Degrowth is Communism – New Discourses
Is Degrowth something new or has its death-force always been around? Look around and see how human life has been handled and is now being handled.
Degrowth is Anthony Fauci prohibiting Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin – highly effective low-cost repurposed drugs -being used to treat COVID and save lives.
Degrowth is using Remdesivir to treat COVID patients in hospitals.
Degrowth is sending COVID-19-positive patients into nursing homes.
Degrowth is an mRNA vaccine that produces deadly adverse effects.
Degrowth is digital currency – the means to limit consumption.
Degrowth is ESG deciding who has access to capital.
Degrowth is forced social transformation.
Degrowth is employing a pandemic psyop. The creation of fear leads to submission to Degrowth “solutions”.
Degrowth is employing a climate crisis psyop. The creation of fear leads to submission to Degrowth “solutions”.
Degrowth is the WHO, the UN, and the WEF – globalists organizations that want complete control of life on earth.
Degrowth is inflation, Biden’s Green energy tax imposed upon Americans.
Degrowth is engineered scarcity. “You will own nothing and be happy.”
Degrowth is population control using abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, euthanasia, and bioweapon pandemics.
Degrowth is sending billions of tax-payer dollars over to one of the most corrupt nations on earth while Biden offers $700 to Maui residents.
Degrowth is wasting billions of tax-payer dollars for unreliable renewable gizmos and not using the money to build reliable nuclear reactors.
Degrowth is creating stifling economic conditions leading to exhaustion, despair and suicide. (Suicides reached an all-time high in 2022.)
Degrowth is incompetence, lack of foresight, neglect of infrastructure, not clearing brush and flammable grass, letting things go. (See Maui headlines below.)
Last century there were those who wanted to change the world to their vision of the world. Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao used fear to generate “cooperation” towards those ends. In the process of social transformation to produce results, millions were killed. Little wonder that the entry on ‘mass killings’ under Communism may one day be deleted. The entry won’t help the “reduce inequality and share national and global income more fairly” Degrowth narrative.
The gospel of Degrowth has all of last century’s collectivist trappings and propensity to snuff out life for the sake of a “sustainability”. The reach of last century’s tyrants didn’t cover the earth. Today, digital technology covers the earth. So now a message of “impending doom” and Degrowth “salvation” will reach across the globe and bring death and destruction to more lives. And that’s because . . .
Degrowth, like Marxism, is a God-less perspective. There is no mention of God in its prospectuses. Degrowth takes no account of God or of God’s providential care of His creation or of humans as the collective image of God acting as agents to continue to bring order and function to creation as they work with God. Degrowthers want none of that. They are their own gods.
Degrowthers, as did Marx, picture human existence after everything has been “rectified” through long struggles, a series of historic processes, and transformation of circumstances and men, to be something like that of carefree Eloi sitting around with the lion and the lamb eating fruit and reading poetry.
If we “picture economies like people with metabolisms” then Degrowth is a deadly virus.
The sub-title of my blog: Walking around on Resurrection ground. These words are not some sappy sentiments. These words speak of an eye-witnessed historical reality – God, very God, is personally involved with His creation. Jesus, in going to the cross, gave us the example we are to follow – not employing an authoritarian program of Degrowth (the wisdom of this world) but choosing the paradoxical path of self-denial leading to true life.
We are to put off our old self, which belonged to our former manner of life that was corrupted through deceitful desires, to find true life. Doing away with lack of self-control, covetousness, greed, etc. has implications not just for the individual but for the world.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, they must give themselves up, and pick up their cross, and follow me. Yes: if someone wants to save their life, they must lose it; and if anyone loses their life for my sake they will find it. What use will it be, otherwise, if you win the world but forfeit your true life? What will you give to get your life back? -Jesus, the gospel of Matthew 16: 24-26
Degrowth takes its toll:
Degrowth is Communism:
Degrowth is growing:
Think about how Degrowth will be implemented when you read this.
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Maui, degrowth in action:
“This is a catastrophe beyond imagination and the response of the State governments has been appalling. Surprisingly, local rescue workers have high praise for the FEMA response team. They are doing the work the State government refused to do. Instead of transparency it looks like the outside world is being fed disinformation by the local government in order to down play the scope and scale of the disaster.” (Emphasis mine.)
Exclusive: Is The Government of Hawaii Lying About The Missing and Dead on Maui? | The Gateway Pundit | by Larry Johnson
Governor Josh Green on X: “Trying to take land away from our people before we’ve had a chance to grieve and rebuilt is not pono, and we will not stand for it. https://t.co/gZczd1oLTo” / X (twitter.com)
Video: Tulsi Gabbard Blasts Biden Admin’s “Horrible” Response To Maui Disaster – Summit News
GiveSendGo – Maui Fire Relief Fund : The Leader in Freedom Fundraising.Pro Surfer Kai Lenny in Maui: “I Haven’t Seen One State, County, or Federal Official at Any of the Donation Hubs Where People Are Most Suffering” (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft
JUST IN: Maui’s Emergency Operations Chief Resigns Amid Controversy Over Failure to Sound Lifesaving Sirens During Deadly Wildfire – Cites “Health Reasons” | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hᴏft
“As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, the devastating wildfires across Maui are a classic toxic combination of liberalism, corruption and inexperience all rolled into one.”
“Water Requires Conversations Around Equity” – Meet the Radical, Obama-Loving Official Who Delayed Life-Saving Water to Maui for SEVERAL HOURS While the Fires Were Contained (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Cullen Linebarger
“Hawaii’s biggest crime scene is being white washed by politicians congratulating themselves on what a fine job they did maintaining control and civil order.”
The Horrors Of Ukraine And Maui Made Possible By Government Incompetence | The Gateway Pundit | by Larry Johnson
Unconstitutional ‘Media Free Zone’ Imposed Around Maui Wildfire Disaster Area — ‘Is It No Longer America?’ – David Icke
Attempts to blame Maui fires on climate change challenged by downed power lines, possible neglect | Just The News
FEMA Administrator Questioned Over Maui Disaster and Lack of Assistance – Her Response Says It All (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft
Update From the Maui Fires Frontlines (substack.com)
EXCLUSIVE: Maui wildfires death toll climbs to 480 locals claim, as Hawaii morgue workers run out of body bags and survivors are left to recover the charred remains of their loved ones | Daily Mail Online
“M. Kaleo Manuel, former deputy director of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management, waited for more than five hours to release water during the wildfires that devastated Maui, according to reports…. A former Obama Foundation leader — part of a program by the former President’s non-profit to help participants with coaching and “practical skill building for social change” — Manuel said he considered water an important tool for social justice.” (Emphasis mine.)
Hawaii official worried about ‘equity’ over water (nypost.com)
FLASHBACK: Hawaii Official Who Allegedly Withheld Water From Firefighters Says ‘Equity’ Comes First (freebeacon.com)
Billions to Ukraine but pittance to Americans in need. America’s Degrowth in progress.
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Speak!
VIRAL: 15-Year-Old Goes Ballistic On School Board for Pushing Critical Race Theory – YouTube
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Biden, Montana, Maui – ‘Climate Emergency’ Madness Continues With Special Guest Dr. Judith Curry – The Heartland Institute
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Playwright and Filmmaker David Mamet on Adam Corolla Show
The Adam Carolla Show – A Free Daily Comedy Podcast from Adam Carolla | David Mamet
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Those who love equality of outcomes will love communism. . ..
There is nothing more beautiful . . ..
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Filed under 2023 current events, Communism, cultural Marxism, Politcal cartoon, Political Commentary, social commentary, social engineering, totalitarianism, WEF, WHO Tagged with Absolute Zero, Beyond Growth, Degrowth, Emissions, Maui, Net Zero, politics, social engineering, Sustainability