Efficiency is one of the most deceptive concepts for me. Maybe in every area, but I would like to be focused on agriculture, of course. What are we maximising? With our limited understanding, which inputs do we perceive as waste or non-added value or worthless need to be minimised? The following words' coming to my mind from one of my favourite book, Ishmael, written by Daniel Quinn: "This is considered almost holy work by farmers and ranchers. Kill off everything you can't eat. Kill off anything that eats what you eat. Kill off anything that doesn't feed what you eat."... "It is holy work, in Taker culture. The more competitors you destroy, the more humans you can bring into the world, and that makes it just about the holiest work there is. Once you exempt yourself from the law of limited competition, everything in the world except your food and the food of your food becomes an enemy to be exterminated." That can be an excellent summary of industrial/high input agriculture. Roots behind such an approach may be derived from an illusion where man is the owner and the governor of nature. I'm not quite sure whether we will be able to escape entirely from the intensified agriculture practices unless we see ourselves as a part of the whole.
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