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May 8th, 2007

Here’s one for your No-Shit-Rocket-Science-Brain-Surgery file.

The problem, of course, is getting there from here. Conventional farmers walk a fine line that is so close to ruin that it’s mostly unthinkable for them to switch to organic methods. They are under incredible pressure to perform because they often don’t own the land that they’re farming and a bank has a collar around their necks. Any failure could spell ruin. Of course, single crop or animal farming (monoculture) is impossible without dangerous poisons, expensive fertilizers and energy hungry equipment. Without these Myths of the Machine, monocropping would end within months. If you’re smart, you won’t wait for conventional farmers to figure this out. This transition has to be done voluntarily and gradually by people who are not held hostage by banks and debt.

In any sane system, most people would produce, trade, buy and sell small amounts of a large variety of unprocessed fruit, vegetables and other foods. This system would be decentralized, localized and in balance. In other words, the opposite of what we see today.

The importance of biodiversity CANNOT be overstated. Increasing biodiversity in your system increases your food security. Becky and I have experienced partial and total crop failure (late blight took out some of our tomatoes and ALL of our carrot seedlings, on two different plantings, just disappeared; we don’t even know what ate them). It wasn’t a big deal because we were growing lots of other food crops.

The thing I find most fascinating about the article below is how “experts” are just starting to figure out some of the things that those of us on the fringes of this hideous and obscene system have known for a very long time. Of course, we were right, they were wrong, and it’s too late to change the system now. What will vary are the actions that you will take to help yourself, your family and your community face what is upon us.

Via: Yahoo / AP:

Organic food has long been considered a niche market, a luxury for wealthy consumers. But researchers told a U.N. conference Saturday that a large-scale shift to organic agriculture could help fight world hunger while improving the environment.

Crop yields initially can drop as much as 50 percent when industrialized, conventional agriculture using chemical fertilizers and pesticides is converted to organic. While such decreases often even out over time, the figures have kept the organic movement largely on the sidelines of discussions about feeding the hungry.

Researchers in Denmark found, however, that food security for sub-Saharan Africa would not be seriously harmed if 50 percent of agricultural land in the food exporting regions of Europe and North America were converted to organic by 2020.

While total food production would fall, the amount per crop would be much smaller than previously assumed, and the resulting rise in world food prices could be mitigated by improvements in the land and other benefits, the study found.

A similar conversion to organic farming in sub-Saharan Africa could help the region’s hungry because it could reduce their need to import food, Niels Halberg, a senior scientist at the Danish Research Center for Organic Food and Farming, told the U.N. conference on “Organic Agriculture and Food Security.”

Farmers who go back to traditional agricultural methods would not have to spend money on expensive chemicals and would grow more diverse and sustainable crops, the report said. In addition, if their food is certified as organic, farmers could export any surpluses at premium prices.

…

“These models suggest that organic agriculture has the potential to secure a global food supply, just as conventional agriculture today, but with reduced environmental impacts,” Scialabba said in a paper presented to the conference.

Environment, Resistance | Posted in Collapse Top Of Page