Organic farming just as productive as conventional

JBeukema

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Organic agriculture is a fine luxury for the rich, but it could never feed the world as global population moves to 9 billion.
That's what a lot of powerful people -- including the editors of The Economist -- insist. But the truth could well be the opposite: It might be chemical-intensive agriculture that's the frivolous luxury, and organic that offers us the right technologies in a resource-constrained, ever-warmer near future.
That's the conclusion I draw from the latest data of the Pennsylvania-based Rodale Institute's Farming Systems Trial (FST), which Rodale calls "America's longest running, side-by-side comparison of conventional and organic agriculture." Now, Rodale promotes organic ag, so industrial-minded critics will be tempted to dismiss its data. But that would be wrong -- its test plots have an excellent reputation in the ag research community, and the Institute often collaborates with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
Organic farming just as productive as conventional, and better at building soil, Rodale finds | Grist
 
Industrial farming works because it insinuates inorganic fertilizers (read petrochemicals to a large extent) and herbicides and pesticides into the soil.

Organic farming can achieve the same results or better, but the labor involved is higher.

Plus I doubt we could find enough organic material to create the harvest necessary to feed the nation.

But as far as organic farming goes, the Amish have been practicing sustaining organic farming for about 200 years and are sitting, partially as a result of their farming practices, on some of the most fertile land the USA.
 
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organic farming normally produces smaller yields with more blemishes....and there is really no taste difference
"In 4 out of 5 years of moderate drought, the organic systems had significantly higher corn yields (31 percent higher) than the conventional system."

sounds great for arid regions
 
I know a wee little bit about this schtuff.:eusa_shhh::cool:
Organic produces slightly lower yields on certain crops. I grow tomatoes and bell peppers in a controlled environment ( greenhouses drip irrigation on humidistats). I out produce one of my neighbours by 20%.
He blows me off the map with chemicalized cabbage as opposed to my organic.
I feed my peach palms ( Bactris sp) rabbit shit. He uses chemicals. I blow him away.
He blows me away with his avocado's.
It's about an even trade off.It costs him a hell of a lot more to grow the DuPont way and he is considering changing to my way if only for the cost benefit.
 
People who live in the city and who have really no concept of what it's like to live anywhere else, or what it means to be in the an agricultural community, or the huge importance of farming and food production, have exactly zero interest in this stuff. They think farmers are dolts, that the majorty of the US exists to produce things for them, and happy about it. So you won't get many hits on ag information. I find it interesting, but I think on this message board, you won't find many others.
 
You got it right.
murkins could care less..........................until their demise. Then they'll cry and pray.....prey.....to the baby GeeZiss and their greatest cunt_ry in the history of the world for help.
 
People who live in the city and who have really no concept of what it's like to live anywhere else, or what it means to be in the an agricultural community, or the huge importance of farming and food production, have exactly zero interest in this stuff. They think farmers are dolts, that the majorty of the US exists to produce things for them, and happy about it. So you won't get many hits on ag information. I find it interesting, but I think on this message board, you won't find many others.

You're right!

Food is plentiful and still relatively cheap in America.

Our interest will no doubt grow as the price of food continues to rise relative to our incomes.

The problem with going completely organic is that it doesn't gear up well to an industrial scale.

F'instance...fertilizing...there really isn't enough dung in the USA to give up petro-based fertilizer.

But this is DEFINITELY a problem that is LOOMING on the horizon.

Organically, I can grow enough veggies to feed a family of three on about 3,600 sq of my land, I know because I've done it.

But the amount of work it takes to plant, preeen, harvest and STORE that food is staggering.

The HIP back to earthers learned this lesson fairly well in the early 70's.

Subsistance farming is a tough row to hoe, folks.
 
Growing up on a conventional farm and working on a family friend’s organic farm I personally got the experience of what it consists of. Organic farming is not as productive as conventional and never will be. There are many reasons why this could never happen and also just to make it clear; I am not just saying this because I have worked on both. There are two million farms in America and the numbers are decreasing while the size is getting bigger. The average farm is 471 acres. In a day’s time a sprayer can come in, spray for bugs while putting fertilizers on to help the yield. Obviously with an organic field you cannot do that. There are very few ways to get weeds out of a large field. Using a row cultivator and/or having a group of people walk to fields. The hours you would have to spend to clear 471 acres would be outrageous. Sure, you think you might be able get enough people, but with this day in age, lets me honest, you will not find enough young kids to spend all day walking through a field with the heat and bugs. Bugs can completely come in and wipe out a field. How I know this you might ask? A few years ago on my farm, we had an infestation of cut worms. Within a day 150 acres of corn that was standing 8 inch’s tall was all laid over. Even though we still had to replant it all without the proper spray the field would have been a waste for that year. Also, cut worms move like an army of ants, they could have destroyed everything including surrounding neighbor fields. That is just the basics of those two reasons. Another reason like some people stated above is the yields. You cannot get the same yields as non-organic corn as organic corn no matter how much organic fertilizer one would put on a field. It is just not possible with all the engineering that goes into making one non-organic seed. It would be nice but it just simply won’t happen.
 
Related - I just heard a news story about organic eggs being unavailable in the US because we don't grow enough organic feed. We buy it from China.

If organic egg producers buy from American organic feed producers, the cost is almost exactly twice what it costs to buy from China.

We get our eggs from a guy down the road. Not organic because he feeds cheapest scratch at the feed store but more natural because the chickens are in and out of a chicken house, on the ground, eating bugs and in general, living a good life. I refuse to buy battery farm eggs or eggs from so called "free range, vegetarian" chickens. I'm the vegetarian - not the chickens.

Interesting thread. I think more and more people are buying organic. We buy almost exclusively organic.
 

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