fifteen times more energy per acre than a farmer in an undeveloped country.

"But if you take the passion out of farming what is there left but drudgery? I had wanted to stun the province with the twentieth- century technology that I had picked up in California, that modern system of farming that uses fifteen times more energy per acre than a farmer in an undeveloped country. I wanted to raise three tons of corn to the acre instead of Ecuador’s normal six sacks. It was mighty frustrating (mighty embarrassing, too — what puzzled looks Ramon gave me) — after all the disking, the smoothing, the machine planting, the fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides —- to finally harvest, oh, say ten sacks and end up $150 per acre in the hole. We went back to thirteenth-century techniques, but not knowing which saint to pray to I felt somewhat superfluous, and after planting corn for a couple of days with a sharp stick I was as bored as I had ever been in my life." (Moritz Thomsen. The Farm On The River of Emeralds)