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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [SANET-MG] Global researchers say: Organic Farming May Be the Best Route to Global Food Security
  • Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:57:54 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Global researchers say: Organic Farming May Be the
Best Route to Global Food Security
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:17:40 -0500
From: Steve Diver <steved@IPA.NET>
Reply-To: Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Rodale friends, thank you for that very good document.

Looking forward -- based on my work in the Heartland of
America -- there are three major limitations to growth
of organic agriculture.

1. Lack of infrastructure:

un-treated, non-GMO, and organic seeds

rock minerals (all kinds, great quantities, wholesale/affordable, shipped-in)

organic fertilizers (all kinds, blended kinds and raw ingredients)

compost (always hard to find, quality is lacking, USDA-NOP has failed
on the Big Four Organic Soil Amendments: Compost, Vermicompost, Compost Teas,
and Processed Manures)

appropriate farming implements and tractors (specialized, hard to find)


2. Institutional barriers - either lacking in support of
serving as a hindrance in many locations (much improved
and helpful in many places, but they are still the minority:

Land-grant university: research, education, and extension

USDA agricultural research

State departments of agriculture

Regulations, standards, and expectations to *conform* instead
of using wise use of tools and knowledge based on local,
changing conditions


3. The culture behind agriculture:

Conservative farm culture, hindrances to change and
risks of change

Lacking infrastructure and lacking proven examples of
local organic farming or land-grant research, the average
farmer is not willing to step that far away from the
normal proven production system... which today is nearly
100% GMO/Herbicide/Fertilizer in farm country


The good news is that all these can be improved and/or fixed.
The knowledge and technology to support organic agriculture
has advanced greatly over the last few decades. The experience
and skill of the modern day organic farmer is unparalleld
in history.

The bad news is that if you look at the situation emperically,
it has not improved in many parts of the Heartland even after
two decades of progress in the broader sustainable ag / organic
agriculture movement.

If you look at the big picture, top quality nutritional
foods grown by organic, eco-farming, biodynamic farming and
other ecological farming systems is needed now more than ever.

There is no lack of scientific and laboratory data
demonstrating that the farming system and soil-crop fertility
management program influences food quality and human nutrition.

Yet at the same the U.S. population descends deeper into
a national health crisis due to a degraded, industrialized
food supply, it remains difficult for the average farmer
to transition into organics.

I reckon it's much the same elsewhere in the world.

Two cents,

Steve Diver
Texas

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Organic Farming May Be the Best Route to Global Food
Security
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:09:44 -0500
From: Jean-Paul Courtens <jeanpaul@ROXBURYFARM.COM>
Reply-To: Jean-Paul Courtens <jeanpaul@roxburyfarm.com>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hi Edna

A 21-year study by the Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau or Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Switzerland compared the agronomic and ecological performance of biodynamic, organic and two conventional systems. The study found that nutrient input in the biodynamic and organic systems was 34 to 51% lower than in the conventional systems but crop yield was 20% lower on average, still indicating a more efficient production. The total energy (for fuel, production of mineral fertilizer and pesticides, etc.) to produce a dry-matter unit of crop was 20 to 56% lower for the biodynamic and organic systems, and pesticide input was reduced by 97% (by 100% for the biodynamic system). In regards to soil aggregate stability, soil pH, humus formation, soil calcium, microbial biomass, and faunal biomass (earthworms and arthropods), the biodynamic system was superior even to the organic system, which in turn had superior results over the conventional systems.

What I understand is that in developing countries organic agriculture outyields conventional agriculture. The above mentioned study rings true for most of the developed countries I am familiar with. Organic farmers in the US generally receive about a 20% premium. The price in the store and the cost to the consumer is generally much more than 20%. This difference is not returned to farmers.

Jean-Paul

Roxbury Farm
PO Box 338
Kinderhook, NY 12106
www.roxburyfarm.com
info@roxburyfarm.com
518-758-8558



  • Re: [permaculture] [SANET-MG] Global researchers say: Organic Farming May Be the Best Route to Global Food Security, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 12/11/2008

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