Chef Forum banner

Corporation Farms:

3K views 15 replies 7 participants last post by  flipflopgirl 
#1 ·
Alright guys, I am going to start a discussion here that is kind of essential to our food industry survival.  And I have put a lot of thought into this.  

As a whole humanity; is on the verge of either "Corporate World" or the dark ages, if we dont kill each other first.  Now the thing is, as chef's we know that people are all on the rage of local farms and getting their sources from a local environment.  And, pointing at any city in the inland, they just do not have access to any of the fresh local products, i.e., any port city.  Now here is where my discussion wants to pan out. 

What are your takes, professional or non professional, about having a corporate farm?  I mean a corporation that produces said local ingredients and local meats, for the food industry.  You can argue that we already have that and to a degree you would be correct.  What we do not have is the local community having local proteins from across the world.  So now is the question, could we have large economic farms, that can produce any ingredient en masse.  Say this large building, could feed 250,000 people a year.  This building producing any normal ingredient to some local exotic ingredients.  Where most farms spread out, this farm, would go up, I'm talking about farms inside a building.  We have the technology to do this, and I believe it is something worth investing. This way we save land, and at the same time, we could mass produce any said ingredient.

Now the question:  As a whole our culinary world is dedicated to feeding the people and making them smile that beautiful smile.  The question remains do we culinary professionals continue to drive that kind of farm.  Is that too far out of reach?  Eventuality of cause and effect shows we have to do something to stay ahead of the times.  And its proven that our world is on the brink of a new type of economy, pointing at the political debate.  

I'm not trying to cause any strife here.  I just know that local farms can not produce near enough for the rise of people on this earth. It is not a matter of debate that sentence is merely fact.  What is up for debate is how corporate farms are a matter of necessity and if so, what kind of "corporate farm" would us professionals be looking at.

So, again, discuss, play with ideas, and throw feedback on anything that crosses your mind.  Good or bad, left or right, up or down, does not matter, if its an idea, lets discuss it.  

FACTS:

A person roughly eats 440 pounds of food a year.  If you multiply that number by 250,000 a building farm would have to produce 110,000,000 pounds of food a year.  Yes, that is alot of food and that is only for 250,000 people. Take Chicago for example, which is where I live.  The population is roughly 2.7 million, so you would need roughly 12 corporate farms that could produce that amount of food.  ((We all know we waste a bit of a food from time to time, and Americans do eat way too much.))  Its simple numbers.  
 
See less See more
#4 ·
I wouldn't say "we waste a bit of food from time to time."  We, the US as country specifically and other developed countries as well, waste enormous amounts of food, by some accounts as much as 40%, from production to distribution to end use. There are numerous causes for this and numerous groups attempting to correct it. 

    So my initial response to your idea is that it's an interesting thing to contemplate but as a society we can be doing much more to remedy the current situation. When waste is down to under, say 5% or zero, and we are still unable to produce enough food, then it will be good to have a solution already at hand. 
 
#6 ·
I wouldn't say "we waste a bit of food from time to time." We, the US as country specifically and other developed countries as well, waste enormous amounts of food, by some accounts as much as 40%, from production to distribution to end use. There are numerous causes for this and numerous groups attempting to correct it.

So my initial response to your idea is that it's an interesting thing to contemplate but as a society we can be doing much more to remedy the current situation. When waste is down to under, say 5% or zero, and we are still unable to produce enough food, then it will be good to have a solution already at hand.
I know its enormous amounts of food. I was trying to cover the discrepancies. But to this I'm sure efficiency does need improvement. Of that there is no doubt. But also, this is also to help improve farming and the time delay of "fresh" foods Apart from this the newer hydrogen cells is a good idea. NASA has a unique hydrogen cell where a by product is water. Which should be looked into.
 
#7 ·
Factory farms suck. They should be outlawed and shut down. The owners and operators of factory farms should be imprisoned.

I apologize if I'm confusing corporate farms with factory farms.
 
#8 ·
Mass production of proteins;I have to agree with iceman. Quality non plant based proteins are best when maintained in natural settings. I'm eating I mean this by beef grazing in pastures chickens going out to pastures.cows eat grass not grains. Chickens are omnivores;Grass in the fields;bugs,lizards,worms,fruit,plants. Whole nature. Plant buildings are good idea. Factory farming in a building for plants yes;animals no, not productive. As far as plant production efficiency;corporate strategic planning targeting end of cycle harvesting.
 
#9 ·
And what if there was a design that incorporated nature inside a building? And iceman. To a degree I agree with you. When the proteins are loaded with genetic manipulation, just as fruits and other vegetables, there needs to be a regulation. However mass production on a natural farm environment just won't sustain humanity much longer. Apart from this. If there was a viable way to produce nature inside a building, then I agree it would be beneficial.
 
#10 ·
Mass production of proteins;I have to agree with iceman. Quality non plant based proteins are best when maintained in natural settings. I'm eating I mean this by beef grazing in pastures chickens going out to pastures.cows eat grass not grains. Chickens are omnivores;Grass in the fields;bugs,lizards,worms
 
#14 ·
They currently use ponds. If memory serves correctly, they create large, open ponds. I don't remember the term used. Lagoons? There is danger of the walls leaking and the manure running out but its' generally a large, disgusting area. I think in the last decade or so they have begun to cap them with a roof of some kind.  The ones on pig farms in a southern state were in the news a few years ago. Perhaps someone else will have a link or better info. 
 
#15 ·
So the pile just grows, huh?

 In regards to the actual mega- farms, its a cluster-f*uck that happened at along time ago, probably around the early to mid 70's, and one of the things that helped it along was the use of the vacuum packing machine.  Prior to this, all meat was dry aged (a'la "Rocky"), and meat was kept in as large as possible sides or quarter sides, the local butcher would break down the sides into smaller cuts.  With the packing machine, it was now possible to cut meat into consumer cuts with no loss of weight--the purchaser buys the "purge" or liquid in the bag!  The local butcher was pretty much eliminated 

Because of this, it now made economic sense to build mega- meat packing plants, very labour saving, very quick, and very efficient.  Also a very effective method of spreading viruses, but lets leave that alone for a moment.  Again, a mega meat packing plant could only be supported by a mega abattoir, and the mega-abattoir can only be supported by mega- farms or mega-feed lots.  Just too much hassle to get animals from numerous, smaller sources.  

Now Gov't (fed or state/prov.) likes to save money where they can, and meat inspectors, well they draw a salary.  Can't have a gov't paid meat inspector at every rinky-dink little abattoir and meat packing plant, so the emphasis on most gov'ts is to concentrate all slaughtering and meat packing in as large a facility as possible.  Economically this would make sense, but in reality the opportunity to spread viruses nation wide is very real, and has happened on numerous occasions.  With smaller, local plants, viruses--if they happen- can be quarantined very easily.

Its hard to break out of this holding pattern, and dairy and eggs are in the same holding pattern.  People don't want to pay anymore than they absolutely have to, and very few people have the time or the space to grow their own food.  
 
#16 ·
Since Diet for a New America was published (late 1980's) things have only spiraled further out of control .

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51315.Diet_for_a_New_America if you are so inclined.

Was republished in 1998? but still kinda behind the times altho it is still a good place to start if someone wanted to know the basic facts before moving on to something a bit "meatier".

The AG industry defends the practice of feeding [insert non-plant based protein of your choice here] a diet full of hormones and antibiotics as well as the barbaric practice of using the scrapings from the bottom of those torture cages by pointing out the fact that unlike "the good ole days" when each person, over the course of their lifetimes, could produce almost enuf (on average) to not only feed themselves but be able to share and barter for things that they needed but could not produce themselves.

Look.

mimi is far from being a card carrying member of PETA but she is far far off the "eat their own poop" thing.

But.

It is a proven fact that at some point those of us who like to eat but have no clue what to do about it other than stop for take out and/or make a quick pass thru the supermarket on the way home may have already jumped the shark and are rapidly nearing the "screw the pooch" portion of my rant.

Scary?

mimi
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top