The Pankian Metaphor 3082
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On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 12:16:14 -0600, Anne & Lynn Wheeler
On Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:36:33 -0600, Anne & Lynn Wheeler We will have to differ on this, my thesis is that having a healthy trucking system is a good thing...
You apparently haven't understood what I wrote. I never claimed that there shouldn't be a healthy trucking opeation or claimed that there shouldn't be a healthy rail system. I've repeatedly wrote that a good...
My grandfater had a dairy in Meath St. Dublin, near the center. The fodder for the cows was drawn in by horses, the cows refuse (polite word) was sold to people for manure for their gardens. Later, the cows were moved out to about ten miles or so, and the fresh milk was brought in on the `milk train' (my grandfather had gone on to other things)... Now most of the milk is produced in areas that suit milk production, good grbutt growth, early spring growth, dry land that dosn't turn into a bog after every shower, largish farms (by European standards) which can afford the infrastructure.. Size on grbutt farms seems to peak around 220 cows or so, given that the cows can only walk so far to be milked (In the US, where feed is trucked in, herds can be a lot bigger).. Now most land around Cities, (even in Russia) is either built on, or be estates owned by either the powerful or the rich, so milk HAS to be brought long distances..
Vegetables need several things, especially grown in big quanbreasties, levellish land, cheapish water, low-wage labour.. and so on. Not available everywhere, so heavy trucking or railway. The present globalization fad is going to expand these trends..
transportation has gotten significantly less expensive than it was many years ago. for a large physically distributed country ... overcoming distance sensitive issues is...
Last time I was in the States, in Washington (!), I asked one of the locals how far one would have to drive to see real countryside... He said, 40-50 miles, inside that big fed outfits (Fort Meade).. country estates, stud farms... Airports.. I remember vegetable farms on Staten Island, any there now?. All based on cheap transport.
-- greymaus Just Another Grumpy Old Man