Is NeanderThin good for the environment?
Since ancient times, the most destructive factor in the degradation of the environment has been monoculture agriculture. The production of wheat in ancient Sumeria transformed once-fertile plains into salt flats that remain sterile 5,000 years later. As well as depleting both the soil and water sources, monoculture agriculture also produces environmental damage by altering the delicate balance of natural ecosystems. World rice production in 1993, for instance, caused 155 million cases of malaria by providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the paddies. Human contact with ducks in the same rice paddies resulted in 500 million cases of influenza during the same year. A frequently argued assertion is that our continued reliance on animal foods constitutes a highly inefficient use of scarce food resources. It is argued that domestic animals compete with humans for food, eating perhaps three times as much food as they provide for humans. This argument is based on the fallacy that the lan