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This will be Organic farming's legacy - while generally the benefits of organic farming are between "dubious" and "complete woo-woo", their soil management tech

by Pxtl 9y ago

This will be Organic farming's legacy - while generally the benefits of organic farming are between "dubious" and "complete woo-woo", their soil management techniques will eventually take over the world. Better water retention, better soil structure, etc.

DaggerDagger 9y ago
I guess you like eating apples that taste like wood chips then. Organic is how farmers have been doing it for 10,000+ years of farming, the in-organic kind was invented in the last century by RoundUp and MiracleGro and friends. Pouring industrially produced chemicals into fields of neatly rowed (and erosion prone) staple monocrops is a recipe for failure and more dustbowls and global nutrient debt. Please don't sell organic farming down the river it's going to save us all.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- reilly3000 9y ago
  The smart money is on biodynamic farming. It's a 100+ year old system that leverages natural synergy to maximize sustainable, quality output.
bryanlarsen 9y ago
What soil management techniques? Where I'm from organic farmers generally use tillage for weed control instead of herbicides, and tillage is what's destroying the soil and letting it erode. Remember that anything an organic farmer can do a conventional farmer can do as well, and probably is.
- Pxtl 9y ago
  > Remember that anything an organic farmer can do a conventional farmer can do as well, and probably is. Different incentives exist. The organic certification process of soil is very expensive (in terms of time, not cash), which creates a big incentive for organic farmers to protect it from erosion. Organic practices involve a lot more living matter being put into the soil that helps to retain water, a lot more mulching to protect it from erosion. Conventional farmers, with access to cheaper fertilizers and the like, lack the extra incentive to protect their existing soil. I expect as global warming shifts incentives (like the need for carbon-neutral fertilizers, drought-tolerant soil, etc) organic farming practices for soil management will get adopted by conventional farmers. Proving these techniques out will be how organic farmers are remembered, not the nonsense about GMOs.
  - bryanlarsen 9y ago
    Yup, conventional farmers are horribly conservative, it often takes a generation for practices to change. Organic farmers are generally quicker to adopt new techniques.

by Pxtl 9y ago

DaggerDagger 9y ago

I guess you like eating apples that taste like wood chips then. Organic is how farmers have been doing it for 10,000+ years of farming, the in-organic kind was invented in the last century by RoundUp and MiracleGro and friends. Pouring industrially produced chemicals into fields of neatly rowed (and erosion prone) staple monocrops is a recipe for failure and more dustbowls and global nutrient debt. Please don't sell organic farming down the river it's going to save us all.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
reilly3000 9y ago
The smart money is on biodynamic farming. It's a 100+ year old system that leverages natural synergy to maximize sustainable, quality output.

bryanlarsen 9y ago

What soil management techniques? Where I'm from organic farmers generally use tillage for weed control instead of herbicides, and tillage is what's destroying the soil and letting it erode. Remember that anything an organic farmer can do a conventional farmer can do as well, and probably is.

Pxtl 9y ago
> Remember that anything an organic farmer can do a conventional farmer can do as well, and probably is. Different incentives exist. The organic certification process of soil is very expensive (in terms of time, not cash), which creates a big incentive for organic farmers to protect it from erosion. Organic practices involve a lot more living matter being put into the soil that helps to retain water, a lot more mulching to protect it from erosion. Conventional farmers, with access to cheaper fertilizers and the like, lack the extra incentive to protect their existing soil. I expect as global warming shifts incentives (like the need for carbon-neutral fertilizers, drought-tolerant soil, etc) organic farming practices for soil management will get adopted by conventional farmers. Proving these techniques out will be how organic farmers are remembered, not the nonsense about GMOs.
- bryanlarsen 9y ago
  Yup, conventional farmers are horribly conservative, it often takes a generation for practices to change. Organic farmers are generally quicker to adopt new techniques.