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  • From: "maury sheets" <maurysheets AT verizon.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] organic verses conventional
  • Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:17:43 -0400

The Denver op-ed piece sure did stir up some controversy.  I have been trying to be organic since I was 10 years old (that’s 50 years now).   To paraphrase an old saying, “I was organic when organic wasn’t cool”. We all want to have what is best for our families and the planet, but you can’t always get what you want.  Never underestimate the power of life on this planet, It can be undaunting when it is some insect that comes along to a feast you set up for him and then we can’t figure out where the population explosion came from.  So we try to do the best we can.

 It isn’t the government that will change us into an organic market, but it will be economics that will help more than anything.  So many talk about the  conventional vegetable farming taking place.   It doesn’t exist here in South Jersey any more.  The days of spraying constantly and often even when not necessary are pretty much gone.  Now that pesticides are 600 to 1000 dollars a gallon or pound, farmers that used to spray indiscriminately have stopped.  When prices were 5 dollars a pound, you added extra to the mix to insure a complete kill.  Now if the package says 4 ounces to a tank, they will try to get by with only three ounces, and then only after scouting their fields and waiting for a large enough population of the insect in question.

The question should not be organic or conventional, but local and sustainable small farmers rather than large agribusinesses shipping thousands of miles all over the world.  Pennsylvania’s slogan “buy fresh, buy local” says it all.  The buyers want FRESH and many of them see organic as fulfilling that promise.  That promise is going out the window with agribiz organic coming on strong,  Let’s all try to do what we do best, grow wholesome fresh food with as little impact on the planet as possible.

I am done my rant.  Thank you.

 

Maury Sheets

 

Woodland Produce- Fairton, New Jersey

Hydroponically producing sustainable salad greens in the Northeast.

 



  • [Market-farming] organic verses conventional, maury sheets, 08/03/2007

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