Its an interesting subject to discuss or debate a little, hopefully given that, the discussion does not turn too sour here LOL !!!
What I've always wondered, with all of this and or conventional, mass produced agriculture, from start to finish, what are the facts about say chemical fertilizer, pesticide, insecticide etc. ? Like, are these kinds of inputs, the chemicals, actually in the plants, say just fertilizer. Are the spray applied chemicals, in the plants, fed to livestock that are slaughtered for consumption and what are the effects of this on ones health ? What are the facts with this ? I know there are other things involved with livestock, hormones or whatever else, things like Don describes with the Vet, are any of these proven or known to be detrimental to ones health ? Thats the part that really gets me, what effect does all of this have on ones health and well being ? Don't think for a minute I'd take a side on this that its just all bad, and discriminate against these practices, (theres a lot more to this) I just want to know what is the bottom line with all of it ?
If you grow a vegetable garden for instance, and you grow bell peppers, organically, (something I have done for years) you do know that there are no chemical fertilizers used or insecticide/pesticides used at all. If you get a nice red bell pepper from the supermarket, its likely to have 13 different kinds of the above on it or applied to it, according to reports I have read. Now which one would you choose, most would have to say from the garden. Ok, so its peace of mind to know, but what detrimental effects are there from the supermarket bell pepper ? If in fact there are significant consequences, maybe not so immediate, but over time, then it would appear there would be a market for a seemingly better product, or lets say safer product. I still would not bash the predecessor, conventional or the current mass production agriculture, knowing there is a huge difference in sustaining organic crops, the latter of which is not easy on a large scale, and is what makes yields that feeds a very large population. That in itself is its own debate/discussion.
Personally, I don't like and avoid chemicals as best I can. I do support the organic dairy, co-op that seems to be happening regionally, and there was some interesting stories by the farmers, (check out the link). Theres a bunch of good reading in there, "Who-is your farmer". Its a resurgence of family size farms, in areas that are not the best soils or conditions, with all the same hardships any farmer has to deal with organic or not. Now maybe its just a bunch of propaganda, I do not know, but always try to scrutinize as best I can.
The thing with this is, what if that product is better, its safer and it eliminates health risks, to me that is a better product and it is something to take pride in, like many of us do with our gardens, everyone shows photos of what they grow, how they prepare the soil and or what they do to get what they have as an end result, theres a lot of great and deserved pride with all that. I for one am certainly proud to give someone produce from my garden, its as fresh as it gets and I believe there are no chemicals used.
The realization of what is sustainable on a large scale, is very clear, organic presents some very serious challenges and financial risk, but by virtue of this co-op for example, it appears that there is some recognizable success with what they are doing. That is interesting.
Additionally, I have attempted to grow a 50'x70' patch of sweet corn, organically for a few years. Whitetail deer destroyed it one year, so fast forward to last year, I used liquid fence, which is I believe natural, would have to read up on it. I planted a test crop in my upper garden, last year, forget it, the rain and cool temps in May June, it never even germinated. So I planted a late crop on that patch, after that weather pattern finally gave a break, some early variety and some longer, instead of staggering the planting, I prefer to get it in at once. One side has marginal soil, the other is actually or seemingly very good, that side did not produce very well at all, the other side did ok. Weeds, one particular type of weed/grass, really came in agressively, I did keep it at bay, but there was detrimental effect for sure. One observation, I placed a heaped garden cart of grass clippings, (lawn is not sprayed or fertilized at all) at one end of the patch, up a bit of a slope and not far from the end of the first row, the first actual plant or stalk, was near it. The grass was dried and green like hay when collected. Well those few stalks of corn grew very well, green as can be and 2 ears of corn each. Interesting, further down the row it failed, lack of nitrogen, who knows what else. I know fresh clippings are a good mulch, I've always dried mine like hay and have used it for years to mulch, stop weeds, and keep the soil moist, so this year I will get a good quality lawn sweep and use that for the entire patch, plus I've coated it with ashes over winter, will soil test, and probably side dress with dried blood or whatever is called for. In summary last year, one side did ok, could have done a lot better, but I was able to enjoy the best sweet corn I have had in a long time, fresh from the stalk to the grill. Mind you, that liquid fence is what made it work, deer left it alone, but then came back after the tassles. This year fence, and or noise makers will be employed, was not in the budget last year. In summary, growing sweet corn organically, is a real pain in the butt, hopefully I do better this year, but it was some work. Towards the end of the season, we had a really intense thunderstorm, it toppled, broke huge trees all around, uprooted a cluster of hard maple that left a huge crater, each trunk was 18" or better, I remember before it was even there, grew in after the barns were not in use a long time ago, that storm flattened my later "day" corn, so all the work for that section was for naught. However or whatever you farm, none of it is easy !!! LOL !
Now, that ear of corn in the photo, the first one I have harvested here since '97 was about $70, thats what the seed cost at least. I got a few dozen ears out of it all. I can't imagine trying this large scale, even with older methods, cultivation etc. And then theres watering, I did water mine to avoid drought conditions, we do get hot and dry spells, as well as too much rain at times, just can't win LOL !
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Today's Featured Article - An Old-Time Tractor Demonstration - by Kim Pratt. Sam was born in rural Kansas in 1926. His dad was a hard-working farmer and the children worked hard everyday to help ends meet. In the rural area he grew up in, the highlight of the week was Saturday when many people took a break from their work to go to town. It was on one such Saturday in the early 1940's when Sam was 16 years old that he ended up in Dennison, Kansas to watch a demonstration of a new tractor being put on by a local dealer. It was an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealership,
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