Wednesday, November 19, 2008
The virtuous cycle of organics
Tags:
environment
,
food
,
problems
,
solutions
- Organic farming techniques result in improved soil quality and fewer chemicals entering into the environment.
- Improved soil quality results in better water retention, reduced run–off and a higher nutrient content.
- Reduced run–off along with reduced chemical usage results in cleaner water systems.
- Reduced pesticide usage results in an increase in biodiversity and strengthened eco–systems.
- The reduced chemical input means less energy is being spent to product petro–chemical based fertilizers.
- Reduced energy and fossil fuel consumption means reduced emissions and therefore cleaner air.
- We get healthier food, cleaner water and cleaner air resulting in healthier, happier people.
- When people choose organic products over the alternatives it encourages farmers to choose organic methods, therefore strengthening the positive cycle.
- GM crops encourage the use of herbicides (like Monsanto's Round–up ready crops).
- Farmers cannot propogate their crops (which hands over food security to large corporations) or develop seed varieties suited to their soil and environment.
- Conventional methods require the addition of chemical fertilisers to maintain soil quaility.
- Exclusive use of chemical fertilisers results in a narrow spectrum of nutrients in the soil.
- Fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides run–off and pollute the water system.
- Pesticides result in the death of beneficial birds and bugs.
- More energy and fossil fuels are spent on the production of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, resulting in more emmissions and dirtier air.
- Potential health concerns exist.
- Lower quality food as well as dirtier air and water – more unhealthy and unhappy people.
Cost is a factor of supply and demand, but is also influenced by organic certification costs which are high and ongoing. Small organic farmers are often unable to afford full organic certification, but their non–certified organic goods may be available at better prices through farmers markets, co–ops and CSAs. If costs is an issue, but you want to reduce your pesticide intake, then you can focus on choosing organic varieties of the top offending foods on this list.
If you are in Cape Town or the surrounding areas you can get reasonably priced organic produce from fully certified, as well as non–certified, organic farmers via The Ethical Co–Op.
Photo courtesy of Jennifer Dickert, licensed under a creative commons license.
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I'm Duncan Drennan and this blog is about spreading ideas regarding engineering, our environment and creating a better world. You can also follow me on Google Reader.
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Great post, Duncan! Trust an engineer to put something that can often seem terribly complicated into straightforward terms...
ReplyDeleteIt seems amazing to me that people still think that commercial, pesticide- and fertiliser-fueled agriculture is a sustainable practice (GM or no GM). Thankfully, I do think the world is waking up!
Thanks for the nice summary.
ReplyDeleteI may be mistaken, but I think some of your points regarding GM crops may be a little misleading or unclear.
1) Organic farming does not stand in opposition to the use of GM crops alone, but to conventional commercial farming practices in general (although most conventional farms today do use some form of GM product).
2) I'm sure that GM crops do not necessarily rely on pesticides and herbicides in the same way that organic crops don't, although the use thereof is part of conventional farming practices.
3) An important impact of pesticide usage, is the toxic effect on higher animal lifeforms further up the food chain, and its persistence in the environment. This is why natural pesticides have emerged as an alternative (and could even be used by organic farmers - see this article).
4) GM foods are not of lower quality. In fact, organic farming has brought us back to the point where it's possible to find worms in your fruit again (from what I've heard). GM crops are actually designed to be of better quality (that's why they are called GM). Of course, it can be argued that GM foods could be of lower quality due to less soil-nutrient availability, or because of safety concerns.
That said, even though I am excited by improvements allowed by genetic modification, I am also concerned about the use of GM products, especially in light of the possibility that they are not subjected to thorough safety testing by independent parties.
And, I am also impressed by the benefits that organic farming practices have over conventional farming, especially relating to health (and therefore also environmental) concerns.
Francois, I think some of my points are unclear - hopefully I can explain some of my thinking a bit better.
ReplyDeleteI probably need to start with my general perspective on GM crops. Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops are the most widely used GM crops on the market (apparently around 99% marketshare), so when I think GM, I think about these products. These GM crops are designed to be tolerant of the herbicide glyphosate - originally patented by Monsanto and sold under the market name Roundup.
These crops are designed so that the herbicide glyphosate can be sprayed indiscriminately. Their benefit is, essentially, reduced labour. Other conventional techniques still apply - pesticides, other herbicides and chemical fertilisers.
On top of this Monsanto also ties the farmer into a contract which requires them to purchase their seeds and chemicals from Monsanto.
There is quite an interesting report from Friends of the Earth which goes into some detail regarding the increased use of herbicides due to GM crops. The executive summary has more detailed info than the web article. One of the many interesting points is that the GM crops tend to have lower yields than equivalent conventional crops.
When I think about quality of food I think in terms of health benefits, so when I say that organic food is of higher quality, I mean that it has more health benefits. This has been researched and reported on a number of times.
There are certainly long terms health questions around GM foods, and the techniques used to farm GM foods are amplified conventional techniques. To me this all leads to a lower quality food product - one which has fewer health benefits and poses potential long term health risks.
If organic crops are resulting in higher yields than conventional farming (and therefore GM crops), and result in healthier food, I struggle to see any real benefit in GM crops. Isn't the point to have higher yields and better food?
I wouldn't mind buying slightly yellowish organic tomatoes in stead of the bright red GM ones.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, though, we are all conditioned to pick out the red ones :(
Hi André,
ReplyDeleteWe certainly are conditioned to pick out the red ones! I recently found out that egg yolk colourants are often used in chicken feed to give us that perfect yolk colour - there are even yolk colour charts! The fact that we have been conditioned actually opens up possibilities though - it means we can be conditioned into a better behaviour and unlearn bad or useless behaviours. A lot of this conditioning has only happened in the last 50 years or so.
A comment on the yellowish organic tomatoes....in my personal experience I have found organic fruit & veg to generally be better looking, and certainly tastier than commercial varieties. You should try ordering some things from the Ethical Co-op - I am sure you will be most satisfied (with the taste and the price).