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nafex - [NAFEX] realism when looking at inputs

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  • From: "fuwa fuwa usagi" <fuwafuwausagi@muchomail.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] realism when looking at inputs
  • Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:11:11 -0700

I got an e-mail asking me to elaborate on my comment of:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My only comment on organic growers is I just wish more would open up
their eyes to what they are really doing and accurately assess the
inputs and outputs. Sometimes things are not as we think they are.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I’ll try and answer this I a manner that does not bring the list down in
flames, but this goes back to comments and jokes I have made about global
warming, organic production, and sustainable agriculture.

Simply put too many people rely on very narrow and often deliberately biased
reports of the results of so called research on a topic. One that may be
less explosive to use as an example is the public transportation mantra being
good for the environment nonsense. A close examination of the data used to
promote the environmental aspect of this argument reveals that assumptions
regarding capacity and that the operational expenses were linear. In other
words the data does not model reality; it does not take into account
partially filled cars, the additional fuel needed to pull a train that starts
and stops frequently etc, etc. In fact a lot of studies have simply
extrapolated the data used for freight trains and then selectively applied
them to urban transportation. Other popular studies have analogous issues.
It is not as clear as napkin feel good logic would have you believe.

Okay so now cut to organic and intensive growing etc. Simply add up the
inputs before you determine that it is sustainable or good for the
environment. For instance I mulch my strawberries with newspaper and dried,
chopped leaves. I can’t begin to calculate the environment impact in terms
of the newspaper (but as we get more electronic in terms of information
dissemination I may find it a very real cost), cutting down a tree,
transporting it, milling it, turning it into paper, inking, cutting,
distributing, etc, etc…and all of a sudden my cheap, labor saving weed
blocker is not so cheap and so environmental. What about those leaves? Well
here is the thing, I am a sloth, I admit it. There is no way I am actually
going to go around raking, chopping, and bagging leaves, but my neighbors do.
They also fertilize the lawn, under the trees probably because they are
constantly removing nutrients from the soil and have to return it in the form
of Scott’s fertilizer. Now it makes nice mulch for me, but lets see they
burn calories that do not come for free to rake the leaves, not to mention
what they burn spreading the fertilizer under the trees, oh and those little
fertilizer tree spikes, then they burn a bunch of gasoline with their lawn
mover chopping up the leaves, and then bag it, all so I can have some nice
mulch for my strawberry patch. Oh and those leaves, well I use about ½ bag
per 4x4 strawberry square…it takes about 8 bags of regular leaves to create
on bag of the chopped leaves I steal, I mean recycle – LOL. So my little
strawberry patch uses the equivalent of 32 bags of leaves and 8 Sunday
newspaper to conserve moisture and keep the weeds down.

Is that sustainable? Is it really friendly for the environment? Look at the
inputs? How much environmental impact was there simply in getting the
calories my neighbor burnt in order to inadvertently mulch my garden? Oh and
what about the plants? My came from Nourse Nursery. What were the inputs to
those plants?

How about those free woodchips from the city? Let see the wind knocks tree
limbs down, tree clean-up crews are dispatched, they carry that wood all over
the city burning unneeded fuel because the labor to go back and forth costs
more than the fuel and maintenance to haul around tons of wood, the wood is
then chipped, burning more fossil fuels, trucked to a public place for free
wood chips where it is picked up by hundreds of folks who use their autos to
fill buckets up with mulch and maybe make 5-10 trips to get that free mulch
so they can spread it on their organic garden and get all snobby about how
concerned they are abut the earth at the BBQ on someone’s Chem-Lawn treated
yard on Sunday.

And it goes on and on. Anyways that is what I meant by assessing the inputs.
Sure there are benign practices, but the reality is unless you live way out
there, where you can borrow from nature to get the inputs you need to sustain
your high intensity gardening and eco-friendly practices, my guess is you are
really just fooling your self rather than having to cope with cognitive
dissonance.

Anyways, this was meant as food for thought. Time to go work in my organic
garden.

tfb

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