As of June 24, 2007 the dependence of global grain production on mechanization, and other 'Green Revolution' techniques, is not an assumption but a fact. We've got a generation of farmers who simply don't know any other way to farm. Even my Amish neighbors back in Iowa would spread the Round-Up™ with great glee.
I sincerely wish it was otherwise ... but there it is.
the indoctrination of 2, 2.5, almost 3 generations of farmers into the chem industry version of Lysenkoism or Ptolemaic astronomy is gonna be hard to undo. but with the price of petro products heading skyward it is gonna happen, one way or t'other. the corner they are painted into is getting very very small, and anyone who can show a way out is gonna be listened to at some point.
whether that point comes soon enough to prevent major disruptions, an intesification of global food theft, etc. -- is another matter. The difference between theory and practise in practise ...
