Torsten Brinch <iaotb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:<u447c0thlr74chjuptk2jtalt3ppivnmv6@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> On 6 Jun 2004 09:20:43 -0700, ta33@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(ta) wrote:
>
> >Torsten Brinch <iaotb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:<l8e5c0d9g62ltit1rbcg54onkkjuu401c2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> >> On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 20:01:30 -0400, "ta" <ta33@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >>
> >> >rick etter wrote:
> >> >> And that means also not cruelty-free. Just what I've been
saying...
> >> >>
> >> >> "...some organic pesticides have mammalian toxicities that are far
> >> >> higher than many synthetic pesticides..."
> >> >> http://www.cgfi.org/materials/key_pubs/Natures_Toxic_Tools.pdf
> >> >
> >> >Wow, I can't *believe* CFGI, which is funded by the right-wing think
tank
> >> >Hudson Institute, could possibly be promoting information that
sup****ts
> >> >their big agribusiness clients like Monsanto, ConAgra, and Archer
Daniels
> >> >Midland, who have everything to lose by the success of organic
farming.
> >> >
> >> >But to be fair, I can't answer the specific charges as I'm not an
expert, so
> >> >I'm expanding the thread to get a wider range of input.
> >>
> >> The quoted statement is rather vacuous, ta, but not controversial..
> >
> >Of course, you're right. I wasn't referring to the claim about the
> >toxicity of non-synthetic pesticides per se; everyone knows that
> >organic farming employs non-synthetic pesticides. I was referring to
> >CFGI's critique of organic farming in general, as laid out in the
> >referenced PDF file.
>
> It is crude propaganda (as so much is, that come out of the Averys
> at Hudson Institute.) Nancy Creamer has an article on it in OFRF
> Information Bulletin, summer 2001, which you may be interested in
> reading.
>
> http://www.ofrf.org/publications/news/IB10.pdf
Very good, thank you. FYI, here is some more information I came
across:
"In Drinkwater and colleagues' conventional, high-intensity system,
pesticides and mineral nitrogen fertilizer were applied to a
maize/soybean crop rotation just as on typical farms. Two 'organic'
alternatives represented partial returns to traditional agriculture,
and neither synthetic fertilizers nor pesticides were used. One of
these alternatives was a manure-based system in which grasses and
legumes, grown as part of a high-diversity crop rotation, were fed to
cattle. The resulting manure provided nitrogen for periodic maize
production. The other system did not include livestock; instead,
nitrogen fixed by a variety of legumes was incor****ated into soil as
the source of nitrogen for maize.
Amazingly, ten-year-average maize yields differed by less than 1%
among the three cropping systems, which Drinkwater et al. say were
nearly equally profitable. The manure system, though, had significant
advantages. Soil organic matter and nitrogen content — measures of
soil fertility — increased markedly in the manure system (and, to a
lesser degree, in the legume system), but were unchanged or declined
in the conventional system. Moreover, the conventional system had
greater environmental impacts — 60% more nitrate was leached into
groundwater over a five-year period than in the manure or legume
systems."
http://tinyurl.com/2lpvs
and . . .
"some 223,000 farmers in southern Brazil using green manures and cover
crops of legumes and livestock integration have doubled yields of
maize and wheat to 4-5 tons/ha;
* some 45,000 farmers in Guatemala and Honduras have used regenerative
technologies to triple maize yields to some 2-2.5 tons/ha and
diversify their upland farms, which has led to local economic growth
that has in turn encouraged re-migration back from the cities;
* more than 300,000 farmers in southern and western India farming in
dryland conditions, and now using a range of water and soil management
technologies, have tripled sorghum and millet yields to some 2-2.5
tons/hectare;
* some 200,000 farmers across Kenya who as part of various government
and non-government soil and water conservation and sustainable
agriculture programmes have more than doubled their maize yields to
about 2.5 to 3.3 t/ha and substantially improved vegetable production
through the dry seasons;
* 100,000 small coffee farmers in Mexico who have adopted fully
organic production methods, and yet increased yields by half;
* a million wetland rice farmers in Bangladesh, China, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam who
have ****fted to sustainable agriculture, where group-based
farmer-field schools have enabled farmers to learn alternatives to
pesticides whilst still increasing their yields by about 10%."
http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/article2.htm
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