A little pesticide does you good but 'organic' farming harms the world

[Walt Starr]

Our health is threatened not by chemicals and GM crops but by the eco-fundamentalists and their crusade against intensive agriculture: in an extract from his new book, Dick Taverne demolishes the myths and pseudo science of the organic movement

Nowadays "organic farming" commands such wide public support that to question its merits is to question the virtues of motherhood. Nearly every famous cookery expert takes it for granted that organic food tastes better and is more nutritious and healthier. Nearly every environmentalist is convinced that organic farming is better for the environment.

The British Government subsidises farmers to convert to organic farming, and in 2002 an official Commission on Farming and Food recommended that even more money should be spent to ensure that organic farming plays a larger role in agriculture. Of course, by definition, all food is organic and the term "organic farming" is meaningless, but to the ordinary public, the label "organic" has a reassuring ring. Eating "organic" food is like drinking "real" ale, not ersatz, imported, imitation stuff. It sounds safe because it is guaranteed to be GM-free and is assumed to be untainted by nasty, possibly carcinogenic pesticides. Supermarkets promote it, which they would not do unless there were a popular demand for it; it is also clearly to their advantage that the public are prepared to pay premium prices for it.

Evidence to justify this enthusiasm has proved elusive. The Food Standards Agency (FSA), set up to examine evidence about the safety of food and to protect the interests of consumers, has persistently refused to uphold claims for the superiority of organic food, much to the chagrin of the Soil Association, the voice of organic farming in Britain. In January 2004 the FSA stated: "On the basis of current evidence, the Agency's assessment is that organic food is not significantly different in terms of food safety and nutrition from food produced conventionally." When a complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority that recruiting leaflets published by the Soil Association made misleading statements, claiming that organic food tastes better, is healthier, and is better for the environment, the Authority found no convincing evidence to support the claims and the leaflets had to be withdrawn.

<snip>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/03/13/do1304.xml

It's an opinion piece, but Reichwingnut assholes leave no stone unturned in their quest to disrespect anything and everything good for human existance. Citing third world farming techniques as 'organic' and assigning that as what modern organic farming is about is not just intellectually dishonest, it's an outright lie.

Modern organic farming techniques are extremely efficient. I engage in the practices on a local level with my backyard garden. I declare biological warfare on pests and diseases and utilize organic fertilizing methods for all of my plants. As a result, my garden is the best and most lush in my neighborhood. My vegetables are awesome and produce more than anybody using Miracle Grow and spray chemical pesticides.

Non-organic gardeners end up with lawns addicted to Scotts fertilizer programs and woe to the person who misses one of the five treatments per year! My lawn gets fertilzed a couple of times each year with a chicken manure based pellet and sifted compost with an occasional treatment of bat guano tea. My lawn outdoes everybody and I don't get the moles because my predatory nematode treatments combined with a single milky spore treatment last year keeps the beetle grubs down and the beetle grubs are the prey of the moles.

[CornField]

1. Thank yor for the link

I've bookmarked it for when I have more time to read. I'm another organic lover and I'm sure this one is going to piss me off. :)

[Goathead]

2. I am reading 'Silent Spring' right now

It is most distressing. We are all little Dow Chemical plants walking around on the planet. The chemicals are everywhere and in everything. If I didn't know any better I would think that it was some sort of science fiction novel. Thank you, Rachel Carson for illuminating this problem.

[FDU]

3. I also have an organic garden in my yard.

There are many organic farmers in the area in which I live and their product is in constant demand. At the local Farmer's Market, their area is the most popular.

FDU

[Imalittleteapot]

4. Anything that kills earthworms and ladybugs

is bad for the soil and bad for you health.

Like you Walt, I have been practicing organic methods in my small yard for many years. It all began with Rachel Carson and hearing a neighbor's baby crying while I was spraying stinky malethion.

It's hard to believe, but I haven't done anything for years to prevent insects, except feed with organic fertilizer and add compost now and then. I do not have any insect problems... PERIOD. The toads, birds, lizards, and beneficial insects take care of the bugs.

Dick Taverne is wrong. That he tries to link better health to 3rd world countries with spending money on chemicals is rediculous.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Food for Thought

Note to mods, the Institute for Science in Society, www.i-sis.org.uk , gives permission for their articles to be reproduced in full for non-profit purposes.


Food for Thought

Toby Risk visits a small, diverse and self-sufficient farm in Britain that means to set an example for the rest of the country

"I could see the haulms of the potato crop turning black as they sprayed the acid on it!" Brian Baxter waved his arm towards huge undulating fields, typical of the intensive crop farming practised all over this part of Norfolk, about 150 miles north of London. The neighbouring 300-acre field had been sprayed with sulphuric acid to kill off a small patch of potato blight.

Brian and his wife Jo bought their adjacent two-acre plot, near Swaffham in Norfolk, in the 1960s. After four kids, 8 grandchildren, hard work and the gradual acquisition of another 20 acres, they now maintain a small farm for the purpose of feeding themselves and their family. Immense satisfaction is evident on the couple’s faces as they tell us about their near forty years of self-sufficiency, but so is the concern at the destruction of habitats and soil that they feel the industrialised farms all around them have contributed to.

Brian and Jo have tried their hand, and by all evidence have become proficient, at many different skills around the farm. After deciding that she didn’t want to lose the fleece of their sheep in payment to the local shearer, Jo borrowed library books and taught herself to spin wool. Their 19th century renovated railway workers’ cottage is now dotted with weaving looms draped with half finished scarves and tablecloths.

"We hardly sell anything, we grow everything for ourselves and our family," says Brian as we walk past a long shed with small farm machinery, composting barrels, onions drying, and an assortment of various tools and implements used around the farm.

Brian approaches a composting barrel and pours some thick black liquid into an old saucepan.

"This is our Comfrey juice," says Brian as he holds up the saucepan for us to sniff its rather pungent odour. The ‘juice’ is created from comfrey leaves being compressed with a little water added, the end result being an excellent natural fertiliser. The Comfrey leaves are also fed to their chickens, which ate them with gusto!

The couple have grown Comfrey for many years and are amazed that so few gardeners and allotment holders grow it, as it has many uses. This herbaceous perennial grows year after year, and is purported to have healing properties for a great many ailments. Jo herself has used it successfully in treating her horses, and its wound-healing properties are also evident in their sprightly dog, Flicka, whose broken leg was healed with the aid of a Comfrey poultice and their veterinarian daughter.

On a plot of about a third of an acre, Brian grows fodder beet and mangolds as food for his sheep, cattle, horses and llamas (kept for their wool), as well as a potato crop.

Brian contacted ISIS a short while ago after reading the articles on the system of rice intensification (SRI) techniques developed in Madagascar (see "Fantastic Rice Yields Fact or Fantasy" & "Does SRI Work?" SIS 23) and invited us to visit his farm. He too claims to have increased his potato yield substantially by turning conventional seed planting ideas on their head.

After being regularly disappointed with his potato yield for several years, Brian adopted a new system of planting his seed potatoes, which also involves spacing the plants further apart. Instead of drilling a hole, and spacing each seed potato 15 to 18 inches apart in each direction, he now uses a sub-soiler. The sub-soiler lifts the earth as it cuts through the soil at a depth of 18 to 24 inches. As the main blade churns the earth below the surface, the shaft cuts channels, which are located six feet apart. The seed potatoes are then placed into this channel or row at 18-inch intervals. This method of spacing the plants further apart allows air currents to flow freely around the plants, preventing the likelihood of disease.

Brian claims that his potato yield has been transformed, and he is convinced that this system is far more effective than conventional ways of planting potatoes. He tells us that he gets more weight per potato; for the same weight, his bags are now only two-thirds full. Recently dug potatoes showed all the signs of a strong yield per plant and there was not a bad quality spud anywhere.

His concerns go far beyond that of a desire to increase his own potato yield. Brian believes everybody with a garden or allotment has a responsibility to use them to their potential and grow a portion, if not all, of their own food. In addition to the vegetables and other crops, and the usual animals for meat, milk, eggs and wool, they also have turkeys, and a pond with carp and ducks.

Over forty years, Brian and Jo have witnessed the intensification of large scale farming all around them. They have seen with their own eyes the increasing amounts of pesticides and herbicides being used, with no evidence that this has actually improved crop yield. Brian says that farmers he has met complain of needing increasingly more powerful equipment to plough the compacted soil of their fields. They also tell him that the earth is now so barren of life that birds no longer feed from the freshly ploughed soil. Brian is convinced that current farming methods are unsustainable. As for GM, it’s just taking the intensification one step further, with possibly even worse consequences.

His message is clear; we all need to reduce our reliance on intensive agriculture, and produce food locally and in a sustainable manner. "People think organic farming is a new thing," he says, "but this is how it always used to be done. Everybody with a small patch of land needs to be doing something."

Brian and Jo have discussed the idea of introducing an Internet website for small gardeners and allotment holders to share knowledge and ideas of growing food sustainably. This could be the start in catalysing action to ensure food production at a local level, which does not harm the environment; the alternative is unacceptable, they feel.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FFT.php

Other informative articles on organic farming and sustainable agricultural practices available from the web site of the UK based Institue for Science in Society: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/susag.php

[Donailin]

8. what a great article

thanks for posting that. It leaves me with a sense of longing for simpler times.

[SOS]

6. Lord Dick Taverne

also believes that the reports of increased incidence of cancer at Love Canal are "baseless". This despite five studies, including NY Dept. of Health, showing the increase.
For more on Lord Dick:

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=127

[Walt Starr]

11. Ahhhhhh, so he's a paid propagandist!

No wonder the fool was actually lying in this piece!

[Donailin]

7. wait a minute now

what's this about predatory nematode treatments? (My yard is so tunneled that even my cat avoids it, but he still gets the wild rabbits.)

[Walt Starr]

9. Predatory nematodes are any one of a couple of species of microscopic

worms that actually eat the larvae of beetles while they are underground. You treat your soil by broadcast spraying a solution of these things into your lawn. Within 48 hours the grubs begin to die off, and thus there is no longer any food supply for the moles.

Long Term, use Milky spore treatments. This is actually Bacillus popilliae which will kill off the beetle grubs as well. It takes longer to take effect but once your yard has been inoculated, it'll protect for up to a decade without further treatments.

[libertypirate]

10. To omit balance...

I just recently took up raising a clutch of backyard chickens. It is amazing how our culture has changed in such little time. Most people don't realize it costs more to buy eggs in the grocery store then to raise the birds yourself. Seriously I spend like $10 a month to feed my 5 birds.

Guess what I found they do more then lay 5 eggs a day. The contrast between my back lawn and my front lawn is a riot. While my front lawn looks like a dandelion breading farm, my back lawn has almost none. This wasn't always the case last year I had bald spots where they grew in. The birds are a very helpful creature they fertilize the lawn, turn the dirt in my garden, pick through the compost, and eat almost any leftovers I throw out to them. On top of that their crap which I do have to deal with, power sprayer :), fertilizes everything.

Our society has perverted the lives of these creatures so we can make their value cheaper.

Organic farming is not the problem, it's that industrial farming cannot exist organically, better known as naturally.

[Walt Starr]

12. You might not want to read this, but....

those chickens would taste better than ANYTHING you'll find in your SuperBoxStore's meat section.

:D

[oblivious]

13. Some interesting organic farming info here, Hope you can keep it going.