Organic farming has become so popular these days. When you come to a supermarket, you would hear ladies asking around for some organic produce. It seems that this kind of farming has led a way to promoting healthy eating habits. But taking a step back, what do organic farmers have to say about this trend?
The figure 34% is drawn from a recent paper in nature journal "Comparing the yields of organic and conventional farming" by Seufert, Ramankutty and Foley. They concluded that while organic farming could come close to scientific farming in some food types, notably fruits, they fell to 34% less productive when comparing similar techniques in staple food production.
Some organic farmers not only love to take care of their soil, but they believe that they have received some sort of divine revelation from Gaia about how to farm. These farmers have deliberately rejected modern farming techniques and have tried to reinvent the wheel.
Good farmers have always ploughed in vegetable matter to replenish the tithe of their soil. But if you are going to continuously remove vegetable matter (produce) from the soil, you must replace the nutrients taken out of the system. Inorganic fertilizers are the most cost effective method of doing so. Anyone who thinks top dressing their fields with a bit of Urea and Superphosphate alone is sufficient to keep soil depletion at bay is just not farming well. This is why scientific farming is comparably close to the same techniques also employed in organic farming.
Most techniques used by farmers to improve soil quality are not as revolutionary as they seem to think. They try to explore different ways of doing so. But an organic farmer rejects the use of inorganic fertilizers altogether. This can be based on any factual reason. It seems instead to rest on some sort of religious belief system.
We cannot judge other people's religion. It is none of our business. But those who do believe in organic farming should not pretend that they are somehow morally superior because they didn't use evil technology to grow their food. Evil technology is what keeps millions of people from starving.
The figure 34% is drawn from a recent paper in nature journal "Comparing the yields of organic and conventional farming" by Seufert, Ramankutty and Foley. They concluded that while organic farming could come close to scientific farming in some food types, notably fruits, they fell to 34% less productive when comparing similar techniques in staple food production.
Some organic farmers not only love to take care of their soil, but they believe that they have received some sort of divine revelation from Gaia about how to farm. These farmers have deliberately rejected modern farming techniques and have tried to reinvent the wheel.
Good farmers have always ploughed in vegetable matter to replenish the tithe of their soil. But if you are going to continuously remove vegetable matter (produce) from the soil, you must replace the nutrients taken out of the system. Inorganic fertilizers are the most cost effective method of doing so. Anyone who thinks top dressing their fields with a bit of Urea and Superphosphate alone is sufficient to keep soil depletion at bay is just not farming well. This is why scientific farming is comparably close to the same techniques also employed in organic farming.
Most techniques used by farmers to improve soil quality are not as revolutionary as they seem to think. They try to explore different ways of doing so. But an organic farmer rejects the use of inorganic fertilizers altogether. This can be based on any factual reason. It seems instead to rest on some sort of religious belief system.
We cannot judge other people's religion. It is none of our business. But those who do believe in organic farming should not pretend that they are somehow morally superior because they didn't use evil technology to grow their food. Evil technology is what keeps millions of people from starving.
About the Author:
I started writing Tom Grafton blogs and novels as a way of letting off steam when the touchy feely brigade got too much for me to handle rationally. If you ever feel the same, visit www.tomgrafton.com and try a Tom Grafton novel to refresh you.
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