• Introduction
  • Why is organic farming preferred?
• Chemical Controlled Industrial Farms
  • Chemical Trap
    • Chemical Fertilizers
    • Chemical Insecticides
    • Chemical Herbicides
  • Genetically Modified Farming
    • Ownership
    • Global Resistence
    • Certain and Uncertain Risks
    • Corporate Co Interaction
    • Global Crop Failure
    • Dead Earth
• The Sustainable Farm
  • Organic Farming
    • Compost – The beginning
    • Permaculture
    • Biodiversity
    • Living Earth

Introduction

An Organic Farm is an essential part of Sustainable Living. The soil of an organic farm can be defined as permaculture (permanent agriculture).  Permaculture refers to a soil that consists of earth, compost, living organisms, and moisture; a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship between a union of animals and decaying plants of different species.  This symbiotic interrelationship is based on a combination of traditional farming practices and modern earth maintenance techniques.

The organic farm enriches the soil and conserves water. The objective of an organic farm is to grow crops and enrich the earth.  The enrichment of the soil improves the fertility and productivity of the farm and prevents environmental erosion.

To give an example of why organic farming is preferred we will examine modern chemical/industrial farming.

Chemical Farming (Industrial Farming)Most of us have seen the picture of enormous tractors moving through giant fields.  The machines plant the seed, water the crops and reap the product.  Fewer have seen the busloads of itinerant farm workers moving through fields picking vegetables.  The produce machines and humans reap are fertilized with oil based chemicals.  The crops are protracted from harmful insects with chemical insecticides.  Weeds are managed with chemical herbicides.  These compounds compose a chemical trap.

The Chemical trap is formulated through the use of one or more of the chemical trio.

Chemical Fertilizers are formulated to provide plants with needed nutrients and wash away after use.  The fertilizer does not remain in the soil.  This might cause an overabundance of fertilizer.  Besides, the company that sells the fertilizer wants to sell some more.  The soil on an Industrial Farm require fertilizer since the soil has no microbiological organisms to provide the nutrients.  All biological life has been eliminated with insecticides and herbicides.  Further, chemical fertilizers are washed from the soil into water systems where they cotaminate streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean (*).

Chemical Insecticides are developed for specific crops and the insects that inhabit them.  However insecticides have far reaching effects.  They not only kill the target insects they kill advantageous inspects.  They kill microorganisms in the soil, the worms and the flying insects that promote pollination.  The chemicals in these insecticides go further than the field.  The people who work the farm, the farmers and seasonal help are exposed to the chemicals.  The different insecticide chemicals produce different forms of maladies including cancer.

New chemical insecticides are created/composed/brewed endlessly because pesky insects develop immunities to the same old brew.  New potions bring about new risks.  As the past has demonstrated the effects of the environmental poisoning brought on by insecticides are far reaching and linger in the water and the earth.  The insecticides seem to kill all but the weeds.

Chemical Herbicides are used to eliminate unwanted plant growth.  The effects have become more specific to certain unwanted plants but reach beyond the designers intent.  Herbicides destroy the natural process of plant degeneration   As with insecticides, weeds survive and require new herbicides.  These herbicides wash from the soil and contaminate steams and surrounding land.

If only we could develop a plant that worked with the chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides.  Welcome to genetic modifications.

Genetic Modification (GM), the chemical corporations (Monsanto, Syngenta et .al.) claim, is the answer to a hungry world.  The literature makes some very profound promises which include enhanced taste, more nutrient value, resistance to disease, pests and herbicides.  The products are manipulated to incorporate the chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides the corporations produce.

The seeds, the plants, even the pollen the plants produce are owned my the companies who developed them. Approximately 80% of corn production worldwide is presently controlled by Monsanto.  Lawsuits are in progress to break the monopoly of corn and soybean market shares controlled by Monsanto (the proud makers of Agent Orange).  Where GM crops have invaded farms not using GM seed and contaminated organic farms, Monsanto has sued the non GM farms for stealing their patented product.  Pollen travels on the wind and is distributed by insects as nature intended.  Pollen from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) activates with other plants and produces seeds that are crosses of the two and owned by the GM manufacturers.

If GM seeds are the messiah for a new generation of food products why is there such resistance and energy opposing their global proliferation.  Recently Europe’s agricultural and environmental ministers have blocked distribution of GMO products (*). Europe and countries around the world are establishing Genetically Engineered (GE) Free zones (*).  There is evidence that genetically modified organisms are dangerous in that they , “ generate superweeds(*) and super predators and that these may invade the genetic heritage” (*).

GM plants also have a wide variety of uncertain risks such as eye irritation, rashes, livestock death and deformed offspring (*).  This is just the findings of recent tests.  Genetic Modified Organisms have not been tested as to long term results by independent laboratories.

Corporations interested in the distribution and and monopoly of the seed market are the same corporations (i.e., Monsanto, Syngenta, Aventis, Dupont, Dow etc.) that produce the chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides.  These corporations with like interests co interact to dominate the world agricultural industry.  The U. S. Government is complicit in this endeavor as is the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (*).

Global crop failure is one of the greatest risks in the monopoly of GM products and the limited variety that results.  If only one form of maize exists for food supply on a global scale we are in danger if a disease developing that destroys the entire crop.  The advantage of a variety of  corn crops is that they all have residences to different diseases.  No one disease or pest can destroy a broad variety.

Industrial farms grow one crop over and over.  As much as 50 tons or more of soil is flushed away with rain. The land is left bare where nothing will grow. The use of GM seed and the trio of chemical treatments have one substantial negative effect – a dead earth.

The earth benefits from a farm that embodies an organic and sustainable relationship with the earth.  Organic farmers rotate crops and sew soil revitalizing plants in the off seasons.  The soil has a consistent base of root fibres that binds the earth together, absorbs moisture and prevents erosion.

The organic farm is an ecological and environmental eden.  Food production acts in concert with conservation of resources and protection of the natural environment.  The earth is a rich micro cultural environment which transmutes and transfers nutrition necessary for healthy plants.  Well managed healthy plants resist insect predators as does regular crop rotation and soil enriching cover crops.  Weeds are controlled by disruptive techniques, such as prewatering.  The goal is to expose the seeds that are viable in the season of planting.  Other aspects of organic farming such as mulching and regular attendance (weeding) eliminate most weeds. The process is carried on by eliminating weeds and not allowing them to come to seed.  The cycle of rotation returns plant stalks and leaves to the soil where they enrich the next generation.

Compost is the heart of the organic farm.  A well managed compost will provide a growing environment which produces healthy plants.  There are different types of composting depending on your needs.  There are numerous books, journals and online resources about managing the natural process of composting(*).  The objective is to develop a deep reaching humus in which to plant.  This leads to the formulation of a permaculture. 

Permaculture is a system of land management based on the natural processes of the world.  It is a location specific where the local environment global solutions through. Local actions. Permaculture seeks to provide for the needs of humanity by disturbing as little of the  wilderness as necessary.  Farmers who adhere to the ethical concepts of permaculture manage organic farms which require less intervention over time.  Organic farmers organize in regions because they know the value of experience and cooperation. This way the needs of the shoppers is satisfied and a diverse choice of produce can be provided by farmers with little or no waste.  Biodiversity is the key to maintaining healthy farms and preventing situations where plant life is impossible.

Biodiversity should be defined from a nonpartisan focus which encompass what is good/positive for the diverse world environment and not based on what is anthropocentric. Despite our egocentric view  of the  world, we are a very small part of the worlds life.  In one teaspoon of humus there exists tens of thousands of different organisms the elimination of any species of which would have more ecological impact than if all humanity perished.  Biodiversity in a broad sense is defined as a reference to the diverse number of biological life forms that exist in the numerous ecosystems.  The microbiologist is observing the same thing as the oceanographer or the geneticist but on a different level of the continuum, with a different focus of ecosystems. 

The variety of genetic variance inherent in plants protects the farmer.  The genetic variance acts to protect the plant from biological and insect pests.  The pests act like wolves removing the weaker of the plants which ends that specific gene line.  Those that survive pass on through seed the gene patterns that better resist those pests.  Tragedy occurs when the genetic variance between plants is too narrow as is the case with GM seeds.  A new disease or insect the plant is not familiar with can destroy 95 to 98% of the crop. The disease, carried by the wind and transportation of waste spreads to other farms in an ever widening plague.

The organic farmer uses biodiversity to an advantage by planting a spectrum of different vegetables.  They develop a crop rotation plan.  This prevents pests and dangerous bacteria that reside in the soil from further development.  In the cotton fields of the south where insect and microbiological pests have taken a strong foothold it is very difficult and expensive to grow cotton.  The industrial farms have created this trap.  The insects, microbiological life and weeds have become so resistant to herbicides and insecticides cotton is almost too expensive to grow.  By rotating and diversifying the organic farmer avoids this problem.  The biodiversity that exists in the soil, in the gene structure of plants and the broad range of seed varieties that exist allows the organic farmer to compete in our markets.

On the organic farm we see the living earth.  The organic farmer is aware the interconnectedness that exists between the living plants, animals, and recycling compost.  Working a farm you become familiar with the seasons and the lay of the land; the low lying areas of the farm, the shaded areas, and the consistency of the soil.  You become a part of the life of the farm.  Each farmer has a collection of seeds.  The collection includes seeds that have been purchased but the prized collection are seeds the farmer has collected.  This includes seeds from plants that matured early, seeds from crossbreeding and seeds the farmer has collected from other organic farmers.  As a farmer you sew the seeds, you plant seedlings, you tend the soil that nourishes the plants, you pick the fruit, you clear the field, build the compost, and return the plants to the soil.  This is the cycle of organic rotation.  You are completing the plan of the living earth.