Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Unnatural ags

From: Ronald Nigh <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 10:42:28 -0500

Dale Wilson wrote:

>I don't think that is what Chrispeel was getting at.  He was saying
>that *if* one *consistently* employs the natural/unnatural dichotomy
>that is the foundation of "organic" agriculture, then the conclusion is
>inescapable that agriculture as a whole is unnatural.

This statement is a misinterpretation of the purpose of organic agriculture
and the use of the word 'natural' by organic farmers.  Only the detractors
of organic farming insist on the dichotomy
'natural=good/unnatural=bad'.  This notion is absurd and no farmer could
survive one year with that kind of thinking. Is not part of any organic
standards that I have seen.

Organic farming seeks to base its production on the natural sources of soil
fertility and pest control rather than through the introduction of
synthetic chemicals that have negative effects on those natural
sources.  Pesticides kill natural enemies of pests.  Fertilizers and
poisons undermine natural soil fertility because they damage and simplify
the soil food web.  After these natural sources of fertility are destroyed,
soil compaction occurs, plant health is affected, pests increase and
production can barely be maintained by ever more costly use of artificial
inputs.  Organic farming seeks to avoid these distortions of soil ecology
by working within the natural limitations of local ecological cycles to
'feed the soil to feed the plant.' This is the sense of the word 'natural'
in organic farming and it is the sense the public understands when it buys
products from farms that use organic or other agroecological techniques
that respect the natural basis of crop fertility and food quality.

Is this so hard to understand? Apparently it is.

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