4 ms·

Organic farming includes crop rotation, fertilizer, soil quality, and erosion control standards that would hypothetically affect mineral contents. Monoculture

Organic farming includes crop rotation, fertilizer, soil quality, and erosion control standards that would hypothetically affect mineral contents. Monoculture (conventional corn or soybean for example) uses huge amounts of synthetic fertilizer to increase yields per acre far beyond what the soil can naturally sustain. Wide swaths of American farmland has lost literally feet of topsoil over the past 50 years. The soil is largely sterile, and depleted of minerals. Monoculture also means the ecosystem that can replenish the soil is absent.

bluGill 7y ago
Farming has changed since the dust bowl of the 1930s. Soil has been lost, but conservation factors have been found. Farmers are now building topsoil. We can only build top soil by about 1mm/year so it takes a long time to get any measurable change (vs the rate of loss which was much higher).
all_usernames 7y ago
Can't imagine why this was downvoted.
- colechristensen 7y ago
  Because it is inaccurate.
  - phs318u 7y ago
    Please point out the inaccuracies.
wil421 7y ago
Corn and soybeans are most definitely rotated. Peanuts are a common nitrogen fixer and Alfalfa is great too. >This crop rotation benefits both alfalfa and wheat/barley/corn. On the one hand, cereals tend to decrease the development of weeds, leaving the field free for the alfalfa cultivation. On the other hand, there are findings suggesting that corn following alfalfa yields approximately 10% more than corn following corn.[1] [1]https://wikifarmer.com/alfalfa-crop-rotation/ https://wikifarmer.com/alfalfa-crop-rotation/
- 01100011 7y ago
  Peanuts increase nitrogen and probably no nothing for micronutrients. They may allow time for the underlying rock to transfer minerals to the soil which are consumed more heavily by the opposing crops, but they probably won't do anything for the issue reported in TFA. Having more corn doesn't mean that the corn or soil has more micronutrients. Corn is nitrogen heavy, so rotation makes sense if yields are all you care about.
robbiep 7y ago
> Organic farming includes crop rotation, fertilizer, soil quality, and erosion control standards that would hypothetically affect mineral contents. So does ‘conventional’ farming
- AdamN 7y ago
  That's not totally true. I remember as a kid going to my grandfather's farm in Iowa and there would be an alfalfa rotation every 6 years I believe. Now they don't bother with that anymore since the fertilizers/seeds and other treatments mean that the low value alfalfa no longer needs to be in the mix. Fertilizer is like doping. It works! But it comes at a long term cost. Anyway, now we can go down two paths, hyper-modern indoor farming which is expanding in Europe and organic farming that is growing in the US and Europe. Conventional industrial farming is going to get hit from both sides. Also, the big things keeping corn going is sugar duties and ethanol subsidies. Without those, alot of the crop would disappear.
  - robbiep 7y ago
    I have no idea how old you are but the truth is farming techniques have changed significantly, even in the last 20 years. Nowdays if you don't consider yourself a steward of the land then you aren't doing the right thing by it. My family are farmers in Australia. We are currently going through the worst drought we have ever had. We've had 7 inches of rain this year vs our annual rainfall of 26 inches. We are still growing a (very small) crop. This is possible because of soil conservation, no-till agriculture, and having healthy soil that conserves moisture. Farmers who haven't adopted these techniques are bankrupt. in the US and Europe, it is possible to not engage in best practice farming techniques, because government subsidies (20 Bn USD in America, 59 Bn Euro in the EU) remove the competitive pressures that that force best practice (it really isn't as simple as 'just forcing more production out of the soil by adding more fertilizer_. Yes, of course there are still farmers not following best practice. It's a normal distribution
    - sooheon 7y ago
      > Farmers who haven't adopted these techniques are bankrupt. If only the world were just. As you say, countries with legislature captured by farming lobbies are no longer subject to survival pressures.
driverdan 7y ago
> Organic farming includes crop rotation, fertilizer, soil quality No, that's not what it means. Farmers producing food that meets the "organic" label may follow those practices but it's not a requirement.

bluGill 7y ago

Farming has changed since the dust bowl of the 1930s. Soil has been lost, but conservation factors have been found. Farmers are now building topsoil. We can only build top soil by about 1mm/year so it takes a long time to get any measurable change (vs the rate of loss which was much higher).

all_usernames 7y ago

Can't imagine why this was downvoted.

colechristensen 7y ago
Because it is inaccurate.
- phs318u 7y ago
  Please point out the inaccuracies.

wil421 7y ago

Corn and soybeans are most definitely rotated. Peanuts are a common nitrogen fixer and Alfalfa is great too. >This crop rotation benefits both alfalfa and wheat/barley/corn. On the one hand, cereals tend to decrease the development of weeds, leaving the field free for the alfalfa cultivation. On the other hand, there are findings suggesting that corn following alfalfa yields approximately 10% more than corn following corn.[1] [1]https://wikifarmer.com/alfalfa-crop-rotation/ https://wikifarmer.com/alfalfa-crop-rotation/

01100011 7y ago
Peanuts increase nitrogen and probably no nothing for micronutrients. They may allow time for the underlying rock to transfer minerals to the soil which are consumed more heavily by the opposing crops, but they probably won't do anything for the issue reported in TFA. Having more corn doesn't mean that the corn or soil has more micronutrients. Corn is nitrogen heavy, so rotation makes sense if yields are all you care about.

robbiep 7y ago

> Organic farming includes crop rotation, fertilizer, soil quality, and erosion control standards that would hypothetically affect mineral contents. So does ‘conventional’ farming

AdamN 7y ago
That's not totally true. I remember as a kid going to my grandfather's farm in Iowa and there would be an alfalfa rotation every 6 years I believe. Now they don't bother with that anymore since the fertilizers/seeds and other treatments mean that the low value alfalfa no longer needs to be in the mix. Fertilizer is like doping. It works! But it comes at a long term cost. Anyway, now we can go down two paths, hyper-modern indoor farming which is expanding in Europe and organic farming that is growing in the US and Europe. Conventional industrial farming is going to get hit from both sides. Also, the big things keeping corn going is sugar duties and ethanol subsidies. Without those, alot of the crop would disappear.
- robbiep 7y ago
  I have no idea how old you are but the truth is farming techniques have changed significantly, even in the last 20 years. Nowdays if you don't consider yourself a steward of the land then you aren't doing the right thing by it. My family are farmers in Australia. We are currently going through the worst drought we have ever had. We've had 7 inches of rain this year vs our annual rainfall of 26 inches. We are still growing a (very small) crop. This is possible because of soil conservation, no-till agriculture, and having healthy soil that conserves moisture. Farmers who haven't adopted these techniques are bankrupt. in the US and Europe, it is possible to not engage in best practice farming techniques, because government subsidies (20 Bn USD in America, 59 Bn Euro in the EU) remove the competitive pressures that that force best practice (it really isn't as simple as 'just forcing more production out of the soil by adding more fertilizer_. Yes, of course there are still farmers not following best practice. It's a normal distribution
  - sooheon 7y ago
    > Farmers who haven't adopted these techniques are bankrupt. If only the world were just. As you say, countries with legislature captured by farming lobbies are no longer subject to survival pressures.

driverdan 7y ago

> Organic farming includes crop rotation, fertilizer, soil quality No, that's not what it means. Farmers producing food that meets the "organic" label may follow those practices but it's not a requirement.