| Ben in the Basin - 7/23/2013 08:57
There isn't enough manure in the world to provide nutrients to support widespread organic production, and also support the weeds that do escape mechanical control. I also would like to know just how fuel use compares to conventional production. Not only fuel burned in the field, but also the fuel to move manure, sometimes relatively long distances.
Ironic that some of the same people trying to save the world one gallon at a time with their hybrids would support a farming method that burns fuel like its free, because they are led to believe the methods are better for the environment.
How to measure sustainability is a very good question.
If you take fertility, intensive farming (organic or conventional) is depleting the soil of nutrients faster than it can be replenished naturally, so they need to be added via different means, such as crop rotation, green and other manure, compost, minerals, etc. A sustainable farm would try to produce those on site as much as possible. Another form of sustainability is to get some of those from a local source, making not just a single farm, but a whole local economy sustainable. And it kind of makes sense logically, since people eat both animal and vegetal products, so both productions should be close by, and that's your source of manure for farming, instead of being a waste for animal farmers and a nuisance for the environment.
Probably makes sense financially too when you consider the whole economical/health perspective, even though industrial farming is more efficient. But that would be a subject to be developed in several books.
Talking of manure, the source and production of fertilizer is also a great way to measure sustainability. Nitrogen specifically seems to be a total waste of natural gas: First the ground is fracked to extract natural gas, then the natural gas is cracked to extract hydrogen and mix it with nitrogen from the air. It means the natural gas fuel is destroyed, which is a shame, as it could replace oil and coal power plants to make cheaper and less polluting electricity, but in the process, all the carbon present in the natural gas is also released into the atmosphere as a greenhouse carbon dioxide gas, which is a total aberration and an even bigger shame.
In these days where ocean levels are rising, why don't we just use photovoltaic farms to electrolyze ocean water and produce salt, fresh water for farming, hydrogen for fertilizer or fuel cell use, release the extra oxygen in the air, and reduce the ocean level rise by a tiny fraction? I am simplifying of course, but the principles are valid, Qatar is already using its petrol money to build huge solar farms to both produce electricity and desalinate water for its population and farms, and it works so far, all their drinking water now comes straight from the Mediterranean Sea.
In general, fertilizers and pesticides are frequently sourced locally for organic farming, while it is hundreds or thousands of miles for conventional. For instance, you mentioned long distance manure hauling: Organic farmers have long been the first proponents of local farming, sourcing and consuming. Again, it's a whole cycle where everything needs to work together toward the same goal.
Some of the principles that make farming sustainable are not specific to organic farming, organic farmers don't have the monopoly of common sense, but it just tends to be more developed with them because that's how the market is. Abandoning growing your own seeds is one way of being a bit less sustainable. It's OK if you purchase your seeds from a local company that has grown and tested them in your soil and climate, less so if it's a global company that grows these seeds thousands of miles away.
I read studies long ago about sustainability comparisons between organics and conventional, so the literature definitely exists. It would be great to perform others now, with the current technology, but it's a huge and costly enterprise, as you need to basically take everything that happens in the farm into consideration, and that leads you thousands of miles outside the farm too to investigate both the sourcing of your chemicals, seeds and machinery, and the sale and transportation of your say, non-GMO beans to the Asian market, as mentioned recently in another tread. |
Forbes article on the "Organic Religion".
