In article om,
James wrote:

Editorial response by Jim Hendrix
'Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil
and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.' Dwight
D. Eisenhower
When Eisenhower made the above observation in 1954,
our nation was one to two generations removed from
the realities of farming. In the intervening 53 years,
certain segments of our society have come to idealize
agriculture with a desire to connect to small-scale organic,
family-operated farms and to demonize large-scale commercial
farms. 'Organic agriculture and the global food
supply', by Badgley et al., exemplifies the perspective of
some scientists in the academic world who favor organic
practices without having a grounded knowledge of the
economics and drivers of food production.
I am a large-scale crop producer in the high plains region
of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas. We utilize
center pivot irrigation on coarse sands, practice integrated
pest management, and are early and consistent adaptors of
technology to substitute capital for labor. We operate
several farms utilizing conventional inorganic fertilizers,
pesticides, crop rotation and minimal tillage to produce
corn, edible beans and alfalfa. I am also involved with a
large-scale organic farm and dairy-feeding operation in
which we grow grain and alfalfa to produce organic milk.
This combination of production practices, employing both
organic and inorganic farming techniques, gives me insight
into production costs and problems associated with both
systems.
The Badgley et al. article misses the mark in several
critical areas. In production agriculture, farmers respond to
market signals and nitrogen is just one consideration.
Organic fertilizer benefits are measured based upon N
content and, in some cases, the content of other nutrients.
84 Forum
However, these nutrient additions are worth only the sum of
their parts; organic nutrients convey no 'magical' properties.
Because economics drive production, all sources of
nitrogen will be used in the production of food, and
combinations of organic and inorganic nitrogen are often
used on the same farm. Likewise, the decision to include
legumes in a crop rotation is made to maximize economic
return and is based upon long-term fertility, current
profitability, availability of labor and management, marketing
opportunities and a host of other factors.
I question the validity of the statement that production
per unit area is greater on small farms than on large farms.
'Large' farms generally maximize land, labor, machinery
and management to lower the unit cost of the commodity
being produced. Over time, commodities always trade at
the average cost of production, leaving little room for
producers who are high cost due to low volume.
It is elitist to condemn people to the drudgery of hand
labor required on small organic farms; only those who have
never done such work believe it is an employment solution.
Throughout history, farm producers have sought productivity
gains by substituting animal for human labor,
designing and employing simple machines and, most
recently, using information technology, remote monitoring
and sophisticated machinery. It is unreasonable to believe
that agriculture will return to hand labor to reduce
unemployment or underemployment.
The final fallacy in the Badgley et al. article is the
insinuation that organic farming is an advanced method of
crop production that always leads to better soil tilth, less
erosion and superior nutrition. In our experience, organic
corn requires soil tillage prior to planting and cultivation
during the growing season to control emerging seedling
weeds. These operations destroy organic matter, reduce
the water-holding capacity of our light sands and increase
soil susceptibility to wind erosion. In contrast, our
transgenic corn is planted into winter cover crops which
are killed with herbicides after planting. Later, developing
weeds are controlled with additional herbicides instead
of mechanical cultivation. These conventional farming
practices allow us to maintain a protective residue
cover on the soil surface and increase soil organic matter
inputs.
As a large-scale producer of organic and conventional
food products, I would like to share a few insights into the
crops that we produce. Generally speaking, as we move into
more specialized crops and end products, organic farming
becomes more difficult and expensive. For example, there
is little difference in the cost of production or yield between
organic and inorganic alfalfa. Insect and weed pressures are
generally controlled with an early harvest, although this
may change with new transgenic alfalfas that offer a longer
stand life. On the other hand, dry edible beans are difficult
to grow organically. They do not compete well with weeds
and are subject to bacterial, fungal and rust infections and
insect infestations which can cause considerable loss in
both quantity and quality. Furthermore, organic bean yields
are typically less than half of those for conventionally
grown beans. The primary consumers of dry edible beans
are generally unwilling to pay for the higher cost of organic
production.
Production issues for organic corn fall somewhere
between those for alfalfa and dry edible beans. Producers
can access the highest yielding non-transgenic hybrids. In
organic corn production, our limiting factor has not been
nitrogen or other crop nutrients, even though total fertility
costs are about 40% higher when compared to inorganic
forms of fertilizers. Rather, soil insect pressure during stand
establishment and the effective control of insects during the
growing season have reduced organic corn yields to 80-
85% of conventional. Overall, our cost per unit of
production has been approximately 30% higher for organic
compared to conventional corn.
In our operations, the economic driver for organic corn
has been the production of a feed source for organic milk.
Additional costs associated with organic production have
been borne, to date, by the marketplace where wholesale
organic milk is currently over twice the price of conventional.
Consumers of organic milk believe there is
economic and nutritional value in their purchase. Yet,
using the latest advances in laboratory testing, we have
been unable to demonstrate any difference in the nutrient
content between our organic and conventionally produced
milk. By purchasing organic milk and other organic
products, I also believe that consumers feel they are
supporting the idealized image of a small-scale organic,
family-operated business. This is rarely the case.
Although economics will dictate how long we produce
organic milk, we question the morality and sustainability of
organic production. Given its inherently higher cost, are
families purchasing less milk to the detriment of young
children? Would these children be better served with larger
quantities of nutritionally equivalent conventional milk?
The same questions can be asked with regard to organic
fruits and vegetables.
In the developed world of agriculture, producers
respond to market incentives. Given sufficient net returns
to attract adequate capital and management, producers will
industrialize the production of organic food. We are not
driven by ideological concepts, political correctness or
environmental persuasions; we are driven by the marketplace.
Farmers always respond to incentives in the market
and will produce sufficient food using combinations of
conventional and organic methods to maximize their
individual net returns.
Jim Hendrix is a farmer and President of Progressive Ag
Management, Inc., Wray, CO, USA.
Forum 85

Good post. I'll get back to it.

Thanks,
--
Billy
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/