Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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*ORGANIC NEWS - ROTATIONS RANT!!
http://nickykylegardening.com/recipesconsumer-news
Written by Nicky Kyle

I must tell you that I was recently contacted by someone who had just read an 
article in a magazine written by a well known gardening presenter, and 
thought I ought to know about it. "A (so-called) no-nonsense guide to 
rotations" which said that rotations didn't really matter!  It continued that 
"you should get a minimum gap of three years between successive same-group 
crops" and that "my own approach is not to be hide-bound by it - it is rarely 
the end of the world if you grow your onions in the same place for two 
consecutive years"!  Well I agree it might not be the end of the world, but 
it might be the end of onion growing in their particular garden if they 
continued for very long with that potentially dangerous approach! This person 
also includes potatoes in their root section and tomatoes (outdoor) in their 
legume section!  Interesting and quite novel to say the least!!  They are 
entitled to their opinion, and I have absolutely no problem with them 
expressing that opinion, as long as it is made perfectly clear that it is 
their personal opinion and not the accepted opinion or recommended practice 
of the organisation which they purport to represent.

I do have a big problem though, when this opinion is expressed under the 
headline banner of that internationally famous commercial organic 
organisation. Perhaps this presenter was unaware, but ought not to be, that 
that this professed approach is actually outlawed under EU organic standards 
and also therefore against EU law!  With very sound horticultural reason!  I 
know the magazine article was aimed at back gardeners, not at commercial 
producers, but even so, back gardeners also need to follow certain essential 
organic rules, which I explain, with the reasons behind them, in the Veg. 
section of the Garden Diary. Nothing should ever be published by a 
representative of any national organic organisation which could possibly call 
that organisation's methods into question!  Unfortunately, although we live 
in a very media oriented, visual world these days, even exceptionally camera 
friendly, confidant and authoritative TV presenting, however attractive, does 
not make up for a lack of basic organic horticultural knowledge, or for years 
of practical organic experience!

Is this the thin end of the wedge - maybe even perhaps the gradual 'dumbing 
down' of organics by the media and others? That would really play into the 
hands of  the great many chemical/GM multinationals interests very nicely 
wouldn't it?!!  Us organic people have been a constant thorn in their side 
for a great many years!

You may wonder why I am quite so angry? Well does this perhaps uninformed 
presenter not understand the basic fact that if organic growing loses even 
one iota of it's integrity then it is completely lost!! Organic farming 
stands or falls on it's infallible and totally credible integrity. It must be 
completely beyond reproach in every possible way. Every commercial organic 
farmer understands that. They've often gone through years of difficulty and 
loss of income in order to become registered and certified organic farmers. 
Having myself been a certified organic commercial grower dealing with the 
public and also a director of two national organic organisations in the past, 
I am acutely aware of the interests of those farmers, and know just how 
committed they have to be. And I've spent a great many years trying to defend 
organic principles against those who would like to water them down or even 
undermine them completely!

Many pioneers of organic farming now retiring from very prominent positions 
are feeling an undercurrent of change. Is this change influenced by purely 
commercial interests or is there something more? Do we have conventional 
chemical 'moles' in our organic organisations? (Like the police 'mole' found 
recently in a UK protest organisation?) Do some people just see organics as a 
way of promoting their own career ambitions, rather than being genuinely 
committed to long held organic ideals? Will we in future years see a 'Not 
Quite so, but Almost Organic' certifying label alongside our  ''Really and 
Truly, Completely Organic' one?

Over the years a great many dedicated and totally committed people have spent 
most of their lives promoting and protecting the integrity of organics, often 
at very great personal cost. Now a new breed of  'soft organic' people seem 
to be emerging, who think it's more important to be 'media friendly' than to 
defend long held basic organic principles. They even consider some of us 
people to be 'organic fascists or extremists' - (which I have often been 
called!). Organic pioneers like Lawrence Hills, Lady Eve Balfour and many 
others must be turning in their graves!