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From a personal friend who is an organic farmer: (a) organic food is hard to do in large fields, since the plants can easily catch anything, and the farmer loos

From a personal friend who is an organic farmer: (a) organic food is hard to do in large fields, since the plants can easily catch anything, and the farmer looses the entire crop.It happens much more than non organic. So the farmer must use very small portions of fields, each with different type of plant, and thus minimise the risk. So no economy of scale (b) you can't use the same plants again and again on the same field, and the cycle of changing plants each time requires to build, dismantle and rebuild another infrastructure each time (c) can't keep in refrigerators long time, so what is not sold quickly, is lost

Fej 10y ago
I thought crop rotation was good for the soil?
- Filligree 10y ago
  It is. The farmer's complaint is that they have to do it.
- shagie 10y ago
  It is. But there's also the "how large is the rotation?" There's the typical cash crop rotation: corn to soy. This has the advantage of cash crop and cash crop. These are both well known and the differences in weather over the course of a growing season are minimized - if its a drought year, you've got the appropriate hybrid. If its a wet year, you've got the appropriate hybrid. Very predictable. Adding wheat into the rotation helps. http://www.cornandsoybeandigest.com/make-wheat-work http://www.cornandsoybeandigest.com/make-wheat-work http://www.agriculture.com/crops/wheat/adding-wheat-to-cnsoybe-rotations-helps_144-ar46231 http://www.agriculture.com/crops/wheat/adding-wheat-to-cnsoy... - but then this also means different equipment to harvest and a different market. When one goes to the idealistic organic the cycle could be: corn, beans, reddish, onion, melon, sunflower, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes. Rather extreme, but an example. Also note that onions and garlic can be mixed, as can peans and beans... but that is the idea. This works nicely for the home garden plots but when trying to rotate with hundreds of acres of fields its a bit more challenging. Instead of two or three means of harvest its nine different types of plants - tomato harvest is completely unlike corn harvest. Furthermore, it means that the farmer is a bit more at the mercy of the weather (great year for corn, but you've planted radishes because you just had corn two years ago and would need some pesticides or go to a GMO variety of corn... and that's not organic anymore) and the markets (there's no demand for the things that are in the next three seasons in the harvest - do you skip forward four?).
- jccalhoun 10y ago
  It is but it is more work than using fertilizers.
rojobuffalo 10y ago
Do you or your farmer friend have an opinion on CSAs?

Fej 10y ago

I thought crop rotation was good for the soil?

Filligree 10y ago
It is. The farmer's complaint is that they have to do it.
shagie 10y ago
It is. But there's also the "how large is the rotation?" There's the typical cash crop rotation: corn to soy. This has the advantage of cash crop and cash crop. These are both well known and the differences in weather over the course of a growing season are minimized - if its a drought year, you've got the appropriate hybrid. If its a wet year, you've got the appropriate hybrid. Very predictable. Adding wheat into the rotation helps. http://www.cornandsoybeandigest.com/make-wheat-work http://www.cornandsoybeandigest.com/make-wheat-work http://www.agriculture.com/crops/wheat/adding-wheat-to-cnsoybe-rotations-helps_144-ar46231 http://www.agriculture.com/crops/wheat/adding-wheat-to-cnsoy... - but then this also means different equipment to harvest and a different market. When one goes to the idealistic organic the cycle could be: corn, beans, reddish, onion, melon, sunflower, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes. Rather extreme, but an example. Also note that onions and garlic can be mixed, as can peans and beans... but that is the idea. This works nicely for the home garden plots but when trying to rotate with hundreds of acres of fields its a bit more challenging. Instead of two or three means of harvest its nine different types of plants - tomato harvest is completely unlike corn harvest. Furthermore, it means that the farmer is a bit more at the mercy of the weather (great year for corn, but you've planted radishes because you just had corn two years ago and would need some pesticides or go to a GMO variety of corn... and that's not organic anymore) and the markets (there's no demand for the things that are in the next three seasons in the harvest - do you skip forward four?).
jccalhoun 10y ago
It is but it is more work than using fertilizers.

rojobuffalo 10y ago

Do you or your farmer friend have an opinion on CSAs?