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Before you all clamor over organics, I'm going to leave some evidence to ponder. The food shortages in Sri Lanka are primarily due to ditching industrial agric

by fny 4y ago

Before you all clamor over organics, I'm going to leave some evidence to ponder. The food shortages in Sri Lanka are primarily due to ditching industrial agriculture in favor of organic: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farmi... We depend on industrial food processes to create the yields necessary to support society. Organic food does NOT provide commensurate food security.

giantg2 4y ago
And conventional/industrial won't provide longterm, sustainable food security either. There are too many people to sustainably support.
sdoering 4y ago
This isn't a counter point to organic agriculture but against idiotic policies. Everybody who has even a passing knowledge of the subject knows that yields drop in the first few years. Especially when the necessary knowledge about local resistant varieties, supporting crops, natural ways to deal with pests were lost over the years. Just reading the setup it was clear what would happen. It was like blindfolding a formula 1 driver and telling him to go full speed. The crash would not be a surprise. I would have been stunned had it worked. Let me provide a more scientific counter point regarding yields comparing different types of agriculture [0]. [0]: https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/farming-systems-trial/ https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/farming-systems-trial/
imtringued 4y ago
No till farming (which isn't the same as organic farming), requires a lot of knowledge and experience. You can't just take people's synthetics away and expect them to immediately know how to improve their soil quality. Over the short term, conventional farming will give you higher yields. Over the long term, no till farming will give you higher profits because you aren't depleting the soil and therefore won't need to move to a different location.

by fny 4y ago

giantg2 4y ago

And conventional/industrial won't provide longterm, sustainable food security either. There are too many people to sustainably support.

sdoering 4y ago

This isn't a counter point to organic agriculture but against idiotic policies. Everybody who has even a passing knowledge of the subject knows that yields drop in the first few years. Especially when the necessary knowledge about local resistant varieties, supporting crops, natural ways to deal with pests were lost over the years. Just reading the setup it was clear what would happen. It was like blindfolding a formula 1 driver and telling him to go full speed. The crash would not be a surprise. I would have been stunned had it worked. Let me provide a more scientific counter point regarding yields comparing different types of agriculture [0]. [0]: https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/farming-systems-trial/ https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/farming-systems-trial/

imtringued 4y ago

No till farming (which isn't the same as organic farming), requires a lot of knowledge and experience. You can't just take people's synthetics away and expect them to immediately know how to improve their soil quality. Over the short term, conventional farming will give you higher yields. Over the long term, no till farming will give you higher profits because you aren't depleting the soil and therefore won't need to move to a different location.