[MistahKoala]

> Agriculture in our age must shift from productivity first to sustainability first

But the two are not mutually exclusive; productivity has a role to play in reducing the footprint of agricultural activity. I don't see it as a dichotomy of 'different OR less', but 'different AND less'. I don't think we should make the mistake of inferring that productivity necessarily means greater and unsustainable use of energy and natural resources.

[runeks]

Only in this age of low interest rates does high productivity equal unsustainable use of resources, as the price of anything with a yield (like arable land) becomes prohibitively high for a farmer to have grazing cattle, such that buying a huge barn and putting the cattle in there is at least half the cost (that's what's reflected by the supermarket prices I see, at least). This changes as the rate of interest rises.

With a falling rate of interest, it becomes increasingly cheaper to borrow capital to buy machinery and build barns, and put live animals in these, while any asset with a yield -- such as farm land, or bonds -- is increasing in price.

With a rising rate of interest it's the opposite. Borrowing money to rent machinery and build industrial real estate becomes increasingly expensive, but the price of land will be falling, as there's less and less reason to purchase farm land, in order to earn a yield, when the short term rate of interest is rising (basically risk-free profit).