If western farming methods have dire heath consequences then why do we have the longest life spans?

Also, if our methods cause massive dislocation and poverty than why are we the richest and safest countries?

Hmm, me thinks that the author might not be telling the truth.

I think that "thinkabit" should think a bit more.
*richest and safest countries?*

really? When the rate for cancer is now 1 in every 2 people ( it was 1 in 500 in 1900).
When we have an epidemic of Alzheimer's.
Yes people are living longer but that is partly because of the advances in medicine that is keeping them alive longer albeit not in the best of health.

Safer? Have you checked the rate of murders , road deaths, child molestation, rape and homelessness lately?

Robert LePage: Has it ever occurred to you that we have high cancer rates *because* we live longer?
We live longer because we have a cheap, clean and constant food supply and that we live in clean safe cities/towns. (In fact one of the biggest single health problems and the cause of many others is that we have too much food-- eg. obesity is a cause of cancer)

"Safer? Have you checked the rate of murders , road deaths, child molestation, rape and homelessness lately?"-- you're kidding right if you are trying to say that living in Australia is less safe than just about anywhere in Africa and most of the Middle East or Asia? Either that or you are very, very, very ignorant of how good you've got it here in the west (and Japan).

I am surprised that the author isn't railing against "those awful" GM crops that our farmers are now growing. As a result of GM we are now using much less dangerous pesticides than before and as a consequence we are ingesting fewer toxins in our food. Not all the increase in diseases can be attributed to food. There is an increasing body of opinion that thinks it can be partly attributed to our increasing subjection to electromagnetic radiation from devices including mobile phones.
Don't blame big agriculture for all the world's ills.
David

Small family farms are still far and away, more energy efficient than large farms run by parasitic corporations; and from (free extended lunches) often obscenely obese (Palmer, Hancock?) boardrooms, all of which, along with buy and sell, profit demanding paper shuffling middlemen, add exponentially to the cost of producing food.
We were much better off every which way, when most of our food markets were farmers markets, and sold seasonal food direct to the end user!
Or run by hands on co-ops, that allowed small productive farms to remain small and consequently, more productive.
And the bugs that infest crops are more the result of broad scale mono-culture, than anything else!
GM crops may well be the price we pay to reduce infestation! I'd prefer that smaller much more cooperative family run farms and their highly varied crops were separated by belts of neem trees, oleander hedges, and alternative crops like soil improving salt, frost and drought tolerant native wisteria; all of which tend to be naturally poisonous to most infestive predations.
However, reversing any of these destructive trends may well be nigh on impossible, or as long as pollies are in bed with big business!?
I'd imagine current farm bills rerouted in full into economic growth, via assisted discretionary spending, (improved welfare and or full cost of living scholarships, for the genuinely needy) would do far more for the respective American or European economies; than any of the subsidies, (welfare for the rich) that simply propagate this very destructive economy killing behavior, we called broad scale farming/overproduction!
An oxymoron if ever there was one!?
Rhrosty.

GM crops have led to a massive increase in pesticide use. See Benbrook "Impacts of GM crops on pesticide use in the US, the first 16 years."

Most GM crops are designed to be sprayed with weedkillers (pesticides). The idea is that the GM crop survives and the weeds die. The weeds have evolved so that they are no longer being killed.These 'superweeds' are currently on 50% of US farms. The answer? New GM crops have been designed to be sprayed with 2,4-D (an ingredient in Agent Orange) as well as Roundup and other pesticides.

The other main type of GM crops are designed to produce their own toxin that kills certain insects that eat them. The result is that the bugs are no longer killed by the plant produced toxin. Now GM seeds are often coated with neonicotinoids. These are systemic pesticides that spread through the plant. These have been linked with colony collapse disorder in bees.

In Latin America rates of cancer and birth defects have sky-rocketed in the areas near where monocultures of GM soy (sprayed with chemicals) have replaced small farms.

It is incredible that growing 'food' involves vast amounts of toxic chemicals. The industrial food chain uses 70% of resources (land, water, oil, chemicals) to produce 30% of the food. The peasant food web uses 30% of resources to produce 70% of the food. Time to ditch poisonous food production and feed us all healthily.