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southern MN | This thread is still live! Cool.
I observed this discussion at a few meetings of late.
City folk that gear I am a farmer assume I sell garden produce from 3 acres and instantly start talking about organic this or that and so forth.
Farm groups I sit down with talk about how weed, unclean, sickly, the crops and meat from neighboring small organic producers is, and how they really aren't interested in getting their food from such places.
Certainly these are general groupings, individual organic and conventional farmers are all different.
But it has been interesting to sit back and watch the conversations, and consider what people perceive and what they wish for.
Both sides wish for healthy, wholesome, good food.
Thry see the other side as less than wholesome.
I'm glad we have choices and continue the system where all markets can be fulfilled.
My personal view is that it is unfortunate some few in the organic side have gotten into the 'fake news' side of trying to promote their products at a premium price by spreading falsehoods about general farming. That clearly is wrong.
It doesn't mean that organics, or organic farming, is wrong, but the advertising and promotion of it has gone some too far......
Healthy food comes from healthy and pure grains and meats. We need to process them into balanced, wholesome foods.
Sustainability is another hand in hand deal, somehow importing fish guts and kelp and tons of manure form other land and applied to an organic farm (robbing those nutrients from their original source) is somehow sustainable, while conventional farming isn't. Resting ground to grow legumes is fine, but it lowers productivity a great deal - so more land is mpneeded to grow the same amount of food, lowering, not increasing sustainability....Very odd conclusions from the organic/ sustainable promoters.
I think conventional farming offers a better starting point of wholesome, healthy grains and meats. It is in the processing that we have gone wrong in the past 50 years, adding fat and sugar, choosing options that benifit shipping and handling over flavor and quality.
City folk that are all crazy over organic foods mean well, they are concerned about their food and want to do better. Good for them.
They just need to understand the real facts, and realize there is no 'easy button'.
Conventional farming offers the best products that are the healthiest, if we process them right. Weed and insect infested crops that were low yielding from deficiencies in the soil and meat from sickly critters isn't automatically 'good' because it has 'organic' stamped on it.
In your garden example, the one that takes care of their garden, keeps the weeds and insects out, is the one I would choose. Most often - not always but most often - that would be the one that fertilizes and sprays for bugs. That produce most often is better balanced.
Several conversations I've heard in the past year have reflected both sides of this. Those who understand how crops and critters are grown seem to favor conventional farming for their own freezer stock. City folk who are far removed from growing stuff seem to favor what they read on the Internet.
Paul | |
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Shaking my head...organics/natural/pesticides
