Organic Farming

[A.J. Holst]

Is the road to famine.

Not a farmer, but I read a bit.

No genmod, no herbicide or pesticide means 3x the land needed for the same (or less) yield.

Fertilizer, only the best human, horse or cow excrement. A breeding ground for e coli. Plus the impact of all those honey trucks crossing the US.

What about the labor just to weed a field, I spend hours in my small garden to keep the weeds at bay.

Like it or not, it is modern, industrial farming that allows population to increase.

Look at countries with famine in our time.  Typically non industrial farming and eventually the population exceeds what those traditional farming methods can yield.

Despite government regulation of the AgriCorps, they can be evil entities. Remember in 1995 when ADM  (supermarket to the world) fixed the global price of lysine? Made 80 million or so and fined 100 million...which I am sure was rolled into the expense column and ultimately passed on to the consumer. 

Which begs the question, are fines levied against corporations truly punitive?

It's a great revenue stream for government 

[Raoul]

You need to read more.

[A.J. Holst]

9 minutes ago, Raoul said:

You need to read more.

In regards to?

It's a new topic of interest, where am I wrong in my post?

I'll edit if it I am posting urban myth and dis-information 

[Raoul]

We've been "organic farming" for years. The general indictment of organic farming you posted is no different than the bull#### organic disciples attribute to conventional farming.

I don't mean to be an ass or insult anyone but the extremes of any farming method are pretty lousy. There's a way to do both that's realistic.

Sorry for the rant.

[nightrunner]

15 minutes ago, Raoul said:

We've been "organic farming" for years. The general indictment of organic farming you posted is no different than the bull#### organic disciples attribute to conventional farming.

I don't mean to be an ass or insult anyone but the extremes of any farming method are pretty lousy. There's a way to do both that's realistic.

Sorry for the rant.

Organic farming is simply regular farming the way it used to be done. But as a civilization we have evolved. We don't have to resort to using manure as fertilizer. Although it is highly beneficial to do so when you also have animals and have the manure right there in your field all it takes is a little time to move it to where your crops are. Only a dumbass hippie or hipster would put human feces on their crops.

 

We used to not use any type of fertilizer at all. Crops grew just fine. Then someone figured out the manure from the animals made the crops grow better so every one started doing that. Then we figured out what the chemicals and nutrients were that were actually helping and now you can just go buy a bag of fertilizer.

 

Genetically modified plants are simply a way to increase the output for a certain land footprint. Probably not the best and certainly not all natural but it's not the devil either.

 

Herbicides/pesticides are simply to keep bugs and parasites from destroying the harvest.

 

As Raoul said, there is no need to be 100% organic nor go all out commercial and use every chemical available.

We have evolved and should be smart enough to strike a balance. If it gives you a decided advantage without killing you, why not. Nothing wrong with hybrid plants, store bought fertilizer, and mild herbicides and pesticides.

[TrickyNicky]

Organic and fertilizers and salt based ones all have their place IMO, and generally speaking should not be mutually exclusive to a given plot. The both have their pluses, negatives, and areas where they equalize in benefits. Run an all organic farm, watch your prices go up and your overall yield per meter drop, run one using only mineral salts, and given enough time you will all but kill off the microbial life which enables a plant to use a smaller amount of water and fertilizer more efficiently. The good news is, those microbes are being bred now and old depleted dirt is being turned back into live active soil. 

Modern agriculture is not currently, and likely won't ever be again an all or nothing deal, at least for those savvy enough to understand the soil food web, and that nitrogen doesn't always equal nitrogen, i.e.; urea based vs ammoniacal based. Urea while derived from ammonia, is not readily available to plants, even though it is very high in useable nitrogen, it DEPENDS on that microbial life to be used by a plant. ammonia based N is more easily uptake, and ammonium sulfate still more so. The funny thing there is, urea has a higher percentage of available N, but good luck getting anything to grow with it if the microbial population is done for.

 

Agriculture is a rapidly changing science these days and an interesting one too.

[gary_boom]

I just wish the coons would leave my corn alone.