"The mythos of 'organic' gardening."
Kevin Smyth (ab210@seorf.ohiou.edu)
Wed, 28 Oct 1998 11:53:22 -0500 (EST)
Thanks to all of you for your replies to my question re. the use of very
sawdusty horse manure on our organic vegetable plots. Seems the best thing
would be to incorporate this stuff into the plots this Fall, and add
nitrogen in some form either now or next growing season. The problem is
the lack of cheap sources of nitrogen. One of the responses I received
said that "The problem is the mythos of 'organic' gardening. Offsetting
this with synthetic fertilizer would be environmentally responsible and
effective, but not 'organic'". Is this really true? I do agree that there
does appear to be a lot of superstition among the fervent organic folks,
and that many of them do not actually know as much as they think they do.
But would it really be "environmentally responsible" for me to buy a
truckload of Yieldbuster 19-19-19 synthetic fertilizer and spread it over
my fields? Thats what most of the farmers around here do in their
hayfields. I bet it would not have any detrimental effect on the
environment of my farm to do this now and then, say every three or four years.
But I am not certain about this. I am not certain about it because I don't
know enough about such things.Does anyone out there know a lot about the
effects of short term use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers on soil and
environmental health? What about the manufacture of the product itself?
Would I be supporting an industry that is not environmentally responsible?
I'm not sure, but I know what the organic folks would say. Does anybody
really know much about the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer? How is it
done? Can it be done in an environmentally responsible manner?
My dad would scoff and call me a "purist". What do the rest of you think?
Thanks, Kevin Smyth
ab210@seorf.ohiou.edu
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