Agriculture : A Vision for the Future - Enews Letter

Bio-Ag Enews#1....08/02

Is the World Going Organic?

Who and What to believe?

There is a trend world-wide towards Sustainable Organic Agriculture. I ask myself, why?

I found many reasons, some based on fact and some on fiction. The scientific community is at odds in this area. It depends where you look and whose conclusions you choose to believe. There is self interest hidden between the lines of many reports, whether it be research from government or private industry. Conventional farming techniques with it's reliance on chemical fertilizers, insecticides, antibiotics, growth hormones and GMO's are under the microscope.

Environmentalists the world over are constantly exposing conventional farming as a major contributor to our environmental problems. News headlines show that there is an on going fight between large corporations self-interest on the one hand and the environmentalists and sustainable agriculturists on the other. The government often shows a preference towards big business. One would wonder what the real reasons are for the USDA to impose their interpretation of what can be considered 'organic'.

Regardless, trade in organic products continues to grow worldwide. According to the International Trade Centre (ITC) sales of organic products amounted worldwide in 2000 to approx. 17.5 billion US dollars.

Why Change from Conventional to Organic Farming?

I believe that the decision to transform to an organic way of life can not be based simply on economics, though there is growing statistics that show sustainable agriculture can be very profitable. A much more important aspect is the attribute that it is a proven system; sustainable and environmentally more friendly. Farmers that are searching for answers totally based on economics, may ultimately have to look inside and question your own motives.

There is a saying 'Do the right thing and the blessings will come'. I am not suggesting that you be unconcerned with your farm's economics, that would be absurd, but as a priority, do concern yourself deeply with what you are leaving behind for future generations. Take a look at your soil, is it in the condition it was in a hundred years ago and if not, why isn't it and what will regenerate it?

The organic industry is in it's infancy and blossoming. It is one of the fastest growing industry's in America. Worldwide, more than 7 million hectaresÑan area about the size of South CarolinaÑare now producing organic food and fiber. Farmers in 130 countries now produce organically grown food. In the United States, 0.2% of cropland is now certified organic, compared with nearly 10% in several European nations. Globally, consumers now spend $22 billion a year on organic products. Organic farming is the fastest growing sector in the agricultural economy. Nearly half of the major U. S. supermarkets now carry organic products. In Japan and parts of the EU demand is growing by more than 20% a year. Companies from McDonaldÕs to Patagonia now buy at least some organic ingredients.

So what does this all mean?

It means that if you have not looked into Sustainable Agriculture yet, you might consider starting. Here are some reasons I have collected, not necessarily my views: it is an overview:

Some Reasons Why Farmers are changing to Sustainable Organic Farming:

• Fears of GMO's long term consequences:
  • The use of GMOs within organic systems is not permitted during any stage of organic food production, processing or handling. As the potential impact of GMOs to both the environment and health is not entirely understood, organic agriculture is taking the precautionary approach and choosing to encourage natural biodiversity. The organic label therefore provides an assurance that GMOs have not been used intentionally in the production and processing of the organic products. This is something which cannot be guaranteed in conventional products as labeling the presence of GMOs in food products has not yet come into force in most countries. However, with increasing GMO use in conventional agriculture and due to the method of transmission of GMOs in the environment (e.g. through pollen), organic agriculture will not be able to ensure that organic products are completely GMO free in the future.

• The depletion of natural nutrients through the use of chemical fertilizers:
  • Organic fertilizers have many environmental and economic benefits compared with chemical fertilizers. If applied in the right quantities, organic materials could provide the nitrogen needed for crop growth, but with much less leaching, also the planned crop rotation with green manure clover plow down as well as nodule fixing nitrogen crops could dramatically reduce the need for chemical nitrogen fertilizers. Organic compounds take longer to break down and they improve soil structure, which increases its water-holding capacity and protects against erosion.
  • Many times, the continued use of chemical fertilizers makes the soil dead and unproductive, and soil bacteria is killed. Without the presence of soil bacteria, several conditions may begin: insect infestation, and nematode. Organic fertilizers continue to improve the soil condition while increasing crop/plant productivity. Most farmers will admit when asked if their soils seem to require more and more chemical fertilizers each year to achieve the same productivity, that it does. This common occurrence for farmers using chemical products is not the case for organic farmers; due to the improved soil condition each season, less fertilizer is used to achieve the same (or better) results.

• Disruption of the natural biology through the use of toxic insecticides, herbicide and pesticides:
  • Many of the pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers that 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides, and 30 percent of all insecticides are carcinogenic. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms, including humans.
  • John Wargo's book, 'Our Children's Toxic Legacy', says that of the 325 pesticides that are legally allowed to remain as residues in food, one-third are suspected of causing cancer. One-third are known to disrupt the nervous system. A whole new bunch is coming under investigation for disrupting hormonal signals that guide the development of fetuses, the growth of children, and the ability to reproduce. The damage they do may not show up until the next generation.
  • Nearly 100 pesticides are legally allowed (in tiny quantities) in milk -- which makes up 21 percent of a toddler's diet. A child may encounter 13 different insecticides and fungicides on apples, 26 on grapes, 20 on oranges. Ten percent of tested community water sources and four percent of rural wells contain pesticide residues. Children are especially at risk, because they are more sensitive than adults to harmful chemicals and more likely to ingest them.

• Carcinogenic disease reports from conventional chemical farming:
  • A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers who used industrial herbicides had six times greater risk than non-farmers of contracting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer. (American farms use nearly a billion pounds of pesticides each year.) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it has identified 165 pesticides as potentially carcinogen

• Reports of disease like mad cows(BSE) and ecoli:
  • Start today with one giant U.S. corporation, Monsanto, which makes chemicals and agribusiness products. It has spent many years and a billion dollars or two developing recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone. The purpose of this product is to increase milk yield in dairy cattle. Inject BGH into cows twice a week and the milk yield goes up by some 10 to 20 percent. But crucially, with the artificially increased milk production, the cows were also fed the infamous protein supplements made from rendered cows and sheep, thus opening the way to diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease), which can transfer to humans.
  • Another stated source of worry is that of E.coli, especially virulent strains such as 0157:H7. The main source of human infection has been identified by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) through meat contaminated at slaughter. Evidence suggests that such virulent strains develop in the digestive tract of cattle mainly fed with starchy grains. Cattle fed with hay produce less than 1% the E.coli found in the feces of those fed with grain. As organic cattle are fed with diets containing a higher proportion of hay, grass and silage, reducing the dependency on fodder sources off-farm, organic agriculture invariably reduces the potential risk of exposure. For example, sustainable agriculture would likely include Kelp Meal in cattle feed just prior to slaughter to reduce E.coli 0157.

• Overuse of antibiotics :
  • Three companies Ñ Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Foster Farms, which produce a third of the chicken consumed by Americans each year Ñ say they have voluntarily taken most or all of the antibiotics out of what they feed healthy chickens. In addition, the industry is turning away from an antibiotic used to treat sick birds because it is related to Cipro, the drug used to treat anthrax in humans. Some corporate consumers, including McDonald's, Wendy's and Popeye's, are now refusing to buy chicken that has been treated with it.

• Religious beliefs of unnatural systems against God's will:
  • And Jesus answered: "Seek not the law in your scriptures, for the law is life, whereas the scripture is dead. I tell you truly, Moses received not his laws from God in writing, but through the living word. The law is living word of living God to living prophets for living men. In everything that is life is the law written. You find it in the grass, in the tree, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea; but seek it chiefly in yourselves. For I tell you truly, all living things are nearer to God than the scripture which is without life.(The Essene Gospel)
  • Pope John Paul II issued a new warning about genetic manipulation, telling scientists that "not all that is technically feasible is morally right". The achievements of modern day medicine and biotechnology could tempt man into wanting to modify the "tree of life", the pope said in his traditional message for Lent, which was published by the Vatican on Tuesday. But life, the pope said, should be viewed as "a gift from God" and not as "private property".
  • Most religions of the world have reservations about messing with the inner workings of creation itself.

• Philosophical suspicions of closed ecological systems supplying profit for a greedy few:
  • The differences between ecology and economics are fundamental. For example, ecologists worry about limits, while economists tend not to recognize such constraints. Ecologists, taking their cue from nature, think in terms of cycles, while economists are more likely to think linearly, or curvilinearly. Economists look at the unprecedented growth of the global economy and of international trade and investment and see a promising future with more of the same. Ecologists look at this same growth and realize that it is the product of burning vast quantities of artificially cheap fossil fuels, a process that is destabilizing the climate. While economists see booming economic indicators, ecologists see an economy that is altering the climate with consequences that no one can foresee. (Lester BrownÕs book Eco-Economy)
  • To make sure we don't miss the seriousness of this message, the US has slapped a $4 billion price tag on the losses it would incur each year if it can't flood Europe with GM products nobody wants or needs.(Stephi Roth-The Economist)

• Scientific analysis warning of misuse of the natural process of evolution:
  • modern agriculture can not be a true sink of the greenhouse gases with the current technology; regarding to decrease agricultural contribution to the global warming, reducing the emission of N2O from farmland is as important as or more than sequestrating CO2 in soils.

• Economic evidence of long term system collapse:
  • TodayÕs global economy has been shaped by market forces, not by the principles of ecology. Unfortunately, by failing to reflect the full costs of goods and services, the market provides misleading information to economic decision makers at all levels. This has created a distorted economy that is out of sync with the earth's eco-system. This is basically an economy that is destroying its natural support systems. (Lester Brown-The Ecologist)
  • Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country's total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate, and harvest, all of the crops in the U.S. Organic farming is still based on labor-intensive practices, such as: weeding, rotating crops, and green cover crops, rather than synthetic chemicals.

• Distrust in Political Structures and Corporate Giants:
  • hidden agenda's leading toward private corporate control (the last two US Presidents had or have Secretaries with previous background connections to many Large Multi national American based Corporations)
  • The corporate interests of agribusiness -- large scale farming and its suppliers, processors, and distributors -- constitute a major power block that dominates farm policy and setting of research agendas.
  • Current prices for conventionally grown foods do not reflect the costs of federal subsidies to conventional agriculture, the cost of contaminated drinking water, loss of wildlife habitat and soil erosion, or the demineralization of our soil as witnessed several weeks ago by both CBC and CTV that our foods are running 40 to 60% less minerals, or the cost of the disposal and clean up of hazardous wastes generated by the manufacturing of pesticides. Consumers can pay now or pay later. When you buy organically grown products you pay now for a more sustainable environment.
  • Scientists from a variety of disciplines in industry, academia, government, and other areas are reportedly lending their support to The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), an organization that has pledged to scrutinize the quality of scientific research that influences federal regulations.

• Medical industry, Doctors, Health Care Workers trend towards the use of more herbs and natural foods:
  • More and more Health Practitioners are recognizing the direct relationship between proper nutrition and health. Many studies involving primitive populations isolated from the rest of the world prove that people enjoy a healthy and long life as long as they eat local, natural, unrefined, processed and preserved foods. When western-type refined, processed and preserved foods are introduced, these primitive populations suffer western diseases. Processed food is dead food.(Siegried Gursche-Alive Magazine)
  • Witness the travels of DR. Hoffman to the Hunza Lands and the travels of Dr. Weston Price to areas of the world where no white man or processed food had ever been. "HUNZA 15 Secrets of the World's Healthiest and Oldest Living People." by Jay Hoffman

• Animal Rights activity against factory farms and their treatment of livestock:
  • Hundreds to thousands of animals (cows, pigs, chickens or turkeys mainly) confined together, using as little space as possible, with little or no access to sunlight, fresh air or natural movement. In some facilities, the number of animals produced yearly is in the millions. The use of antibiotics, chemicals and/or hormones to promote faster growth and ward off disease that would otherwise run rampant in factory farm conditions. The use of "lagoons" to store massive amounts of raw manure. Metal buildings that confine animals indoors. The use of cages to restrict the natural behavior of animals. Mutilation of animals such as debeaking poultry, clipping pigs' tails and teeth, and docking cows' tails, which is considered "standard" procedure.
  • Animals will not survive in industrial farming without antibiotics.

• Awareness of our ancestor's knowledge of the soil and agriculture:
  • The Soil Conservation Service estimates that over 3 billion tons of topsoil are eroded from U.S. crop lands annually. The cause? Intensive mono-cropping (the planting of vast areas with the same crop year after year) and environmentally insensitive farming practices. The results? The worst topsoil erosion in history. Soil is the organic farmer's most revered tool. Rather than relying on synthetic fertilizers, they build their soil through natural amenities, such as composted manure, and by planting diverse crops. Organic farmers respect the soil and view it as the foundation of the food chain.

• Environmental concerns, desertification of land, factory farm water pollution:
  • The Soil Conservation Service estimates that more than 3 billion tons of topsoil is eroded from U.S. croplands each year. That means that soil is eroding 7 times faster than it is built up naturally. Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. In conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position while they are doused with synthetic chemical poisons and fertilizers.
  • The EPA also reports that more than 1,000,000 Americans drink water laced with pesticides that have run-off from industrial farms. Agricultural chemicals have also leeched into hundreds of rivers, making fish unsafe to eat, water unsafe to drink or to swim in. Toxic sludge is another worry: heavy metals, chemicals and low-level radioactive wastes are now used as fertilizers in industrial farming. Eventually these find their way into groundwater.

• Consumer's demand for healthy natural foods:
  • The children of the '60s have grown up, and so has the natural food market. Once natural food was the sole domain of small specialty markets. Today, retail sales of natural foods are the fastest-growing segment of the grocery industry, accounting for 10 percent of the more than $300 billion in annual sales. ATLANTA (CNN)

In the developing countries new research indicates that organic farming methods can help peasant farmers produce considerably more food. Organic agriculture has matured sufficiently to be taken seriously by world leaders as an agricultural type capable of solving agriculture's environmental problems without the risk of compromising food supply.

As a concerned individual I believe that making the transition from industrial agriculture to an ecologically-based model will be a balancing process: phasing out unsustainable practices, piloting new practices, testing options for integrating sets of practices, and learning from experience. There is no doubt that conventional agriculture gives greater yields than its organic counterpart; however, higher yields, we are learning, come at a price in the form of environmental problems.

ps: Cuba is being honoured as the only country trying to feed a modern society with organic farming. Its organic-farming association was awarded an ''alternative Nobel Prize'' last year in the Swedish parliament. The first time any country has made the transition from chemical-intensive farming to sustainable agriculture on a national level.

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Sources:

Factory Farms Fancy Secrecy, Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com, July 17, 2002 http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13612
21'st Century Agriculture....http://members.aol.com/marion7800/agricult.htm
Wise Acres Farm ....http://www.wisespirit.com/organic.htm
07/04/01 . Eric Schlosser . The Guardian . UK....The Bitter Truth About Fast Food
The Future of Agriculture....http://planck.us/future/agriculture/
http://www.enn.com/indepth/warming/overview.asp
Human impact: how we trigger global warming, and what each individual can do about it , by Suzanne Elston http://www.enn.com/indepth/warming/overview.asp
CBC Newsworld...Billions at Stake in Genetically Modified Food Debate(Posted: 23-Sep-99)
Three ways industrial food makes you sick....http://www.turnpoint.org/sick.txt
facts & data:http://factoryfarm.org/facts-ffintro.html
National Organic Standards: Truth or Fiction? Jayne Ollin, AlterNet July 18, 2002....http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13621 http://www.goacom.com/news/news98/oct/msg00008.html
GOODBYE CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS (FEATURE)Frederick Noronha....http://www.goacom.com/news/news98/oct/msg00008.html
Nature's Logic ? StoryID=13580 Jim Slama, Conscious Choice July 11, 2002 http://www.alternet.org/story.html
Food For Thought : John Robbins Warns on GM Foods (Posted: 07-Jan-02)
Watchdog Group On Lookout For Misuse Of Science In Policymaking By Karen Young Kreeger
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1994/august/kreeger_p6_940822.html

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