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OT but a welcome bit of brightness
In article ,
Rick wrote: here is a synopsis of a recent study. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0425140114.htm There are, of course, others out there. Bottom line from my reading is that organic and permaculture methods fall behind on grain production, but do better with other crops. It seems likely that for the forseeable future many farming methods will be required to sustain a growing population at affordable prices while minimizing damage to the eco system. The problem with grain production is that you are talking about monocultures, chemicals, and possibly a second crop in a season. Numero-uno: Monocultures produce less food per acre than inter-planted crops. Numero-two-o: Planting the same crop on the same land year in, and year out will encourage crop pests to flourish. Number-three-o: The cost of chemical fertilizers, and pesticides is linked to to the price of fossil fuels. As the price of fossil fuels go up, so must the cost of the yield. Numero-four-o: The use of chemical fertilizers kills topsoil buy killing microorganisms (like salt on a snail), and the lack or organic inputs (manure, stubble). Dying and dead soil requires ever more chemical fertilizers to maintain crop yields. The nitrates poison the ground water, and the water table. Phosphates cause algal blooms, which when they die suck the oxygen out of the water, and give you "dead zones" at the mouths of rivers, further reducing available food. The nitrogen from chemical fertilizers is stored in the leaves of the plant. These are fast growing leaves because of the nitrogen. Insects are attracted to the leaves because of the nitrogen, which is easily accessed because the fast growing leaves are tender. Numero-five-o: Lest we forget, GMOs don't produce more yield, http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/20/8405 and some GMOs do have nasty side effects on lab animals. GMOs do allow more biocides to be pour onto our food (Roundup), and introduce bacillus Thuringiensis toxins into our food. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...toxins-blood-9 3-unborn-babies.html Roundup has been shown to reduce crops, and bacillus Thuringiensis toxins and meant to kill insects, both beneficial, and pests. We are still trying to figure out what is killing off the bees that pollinate 70% of what we eat. It's not just bees. We are losing our agricultural biodiversity with industrial agriculture. Numero-six-o: You have none of the above problems with organic farming. Productivity in industrial agriculture is measured in terms of "yield" per acre, not overall output per acre. And the only input taken into account is labour, which is abundant, not natural resources which are scarce. A resource hungry and resource destructive system of agriculture is not land saving, it is land demanding. That is why industrial agriculture is driving a massive planetary land grab. It is leading to the deforestation of the rainforests in the Amazon for soya and in Indonesia for palm oil. And it is fuelling a land grab in Africa, displacing pastoralists and peasants. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/03/08/us-food-idUKTRE7272FN20110308 Numero-seven-o: Commercially grown fruits and vegetables are less expensive, are prettier to look at, contain approximately 10-50% of the nutrients found in organic produce, are often depleted in enzymes, and are contaminated with a variety of herbicides, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. In comparing organically and commercially grown wheat, researchers found the organic wheat contained 20-80% less metal residues (aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, lead, mercury), and contained 25-1300% more of specific nutrients (calcium, chromium, copper, iodine, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sulfur, and zinc). Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol. 45, #1, 1993. On Tue, 9 Apr 2013 08:17:30 +1000, "David Hare-Scott" wrote: Ecnerwal wrote: In article , Billy wrote: I thank you for introducing me to Permies; http://www.permies.com/. What groups does Jay Green post in, or is it just Permies? Several farming and poultry sites; when I was researching the use of fermented feeds, his stuff came up in several places since he's someone who does it and posts about it. Be aware that permies is somewhat prone to being what its owner wants to hear - minor discussion is allowed, major disagreements vanish into thin air, leaving only what he agrees with (not even a "post deleted by moderator" message.) I thought more highly of it before I saw that happen a few times. I haven't been back much since then. I prefer to talk with grown ups, or wise children. I like tree and bush crops and "permanent agriculture." When lazy and efficient are the same thing, I'm all for that kind of lazy. permaculture-with-a-capital-P seems to be more about paying money to take courses to get certified to teach courses that you charge people money for so they can get certified, in my somewhat jaundiced view. I don't find it all that compelling, though it has produced some materials I think worthy of a read, so long as I'm not paying an arm and a leg for them, or required to believe (or pretend to believe) everything in them...but there are also good books on the subject that predate the certification-mad folks. I would really like to see a credible estimate of two things: - The cost efficiency of wide scale permaculture, that is what would food cost compared to conventional agriculture a) on the market today b) taking into account long term costs of pollution etc, which almost never figure in our 'costs'. - Whether it can really be sustainable in a closed system. The best examples that I have seen still use considerable external inputs. The answer is to this is in part tied up with how you define the system's boundaries but the dedicated are claiming that boundary is and ought to be at the property boundary - in which case I wonder if it is possible. David -- Remember Rachel Corrie http://www.rachelcorrie.org/ Welcome to the New America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg |
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