> This doesn't
>make sense, since they could get more value from their time (i.e.
>money) working in a job than in a garden.
>
It seems to me that one of the biggest problems in our current society is
the belief that money is the ultimate value and must be maximized. I have a
small garden and is probably not cost effective only from a food production
standpoint. But if also provides exercise (now instead of spending time
jogging aimlessly, I can dig in my garden), relaxation and stress relief
(at the end of a day in the office, the garden drains away the petty
annoyances and stresses of the working day), beauty (what price beauty), a
connection with the earth, a small wildlife habitat, education,
In a lot of the recent discussion on farmland, the assumption seems to be
that "organic" is low yielding while chemicals, etc., are needed for high
yields. Is this really the case? About a year a go, NPR (national public
radio) had a feature series on industrial organic agriculture. On one
segment, a farm manager for Gallo in California was interviewed. He stated
that about half of their vinyards had been converted to organic. He said it
took about three years to convert from conventional to organic, and after
that time, the yields from both methods were about the same but the input
cost to the organic vinyards was significantly lower.
In February, 1994, the Texas Ag. Extension Service sponsored a conference
on Sustainable Ag. One of the speakers was a "sustainable" farmer from S.
Dakota I think. He said he had purchased no off farm fertility,
insecticides, or herbicides since 1980. His farm is debt free and he has
enough cash to cover a years production.
I know of an organic farmer in the Texas High Plains. Some time in the mid
1980s there was a state insect control program. His cotton field was
sprayed and he claimed to have lost 25% of his crop compared to previous
years.
I haven't done a literature search, and the information could be available,
but maybe a good comparison study is needed to see if yields with
conventional agriculture really are higher or if that is simply "common
knowledge." Maybe we are arguing from false data.
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Richard Egg
Agricultural Engineering Department
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-2117
(409) 845-7686 (r-egg@tamu.edu)
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=8Athings only get magical at the Edge.-=8BMickey Hart
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