Meat eating doomsday?

[The Ruminant]

I recently visited Rwanda which was a fascinating insight into a life where there is huge pressure on resources due to high population density. One of the most striking things was the lack of livestock compared to other African countries I have visited/lived in. Every scrap of ground is cultivated unless it is too steep and then it is growing Blue Gum trees. There simply isn't enough food to go round to keep livestock as all crop produce is used by humans or a high value cash crop as a break. I felt it was a 'look forward' to the future and considered it a working example of where the rest of the world is heading.

How do they retain fertility in their land? Are they composting veg waste, or recycling sewage, or relying on artificial only?

 

[BSH]

I dont know. The soil is very rich volcanic soil and apparently they can grow 3 crops of potatoes a year, so I don't know if they are just mining the nutrients only or whether they have other programmes. They did have a number of public toilets which might mean they dig out the sewage, ( many countries in Africa don't have formal public toilets) I did see people walking with Knapsack sprayers, so there is some supply of agro chems so reasonable to assume some fertiliser? I didn't see any composting, although that doesn't mean that there isn't any.

 

[jerseycowsman]

But what else can you farm but beef and sheep in the wetter areas of west wales, Ireland, England and Scotland?

 

[Baling Hay]

I dont know. The soil is very rich volcanic soil and apparently they can grow 3 crops of potatoes a year, so I don't know if they are just mining the nutrients only or whether they have other programmes. They did have a number of public toilets which might mean they dig out the sewage, ( many countries in Africa don't have formal public toilets) I did see people walking with Knapsack sprayers, so there is some supply of agro chems so reasonable to assume some fertiliser? I didn't see any composting, although that doesn't mean that there isn't any.

Sounds like unsustainable mining to me.

 

[Baling Hay]

But what else can you farm but beef and sheep in the wetter areas of west wales, Ireland, England and Scotland?

A few people try sometime to grow a bit of barley up here, they get more bad harvests than good. Grass is best here and the only way you can grow food for human consumption in this area. Also, it tends to be a high quality protein that is cheaper to transport to markets than bulky grains!