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Re: John Hagelin: Old vs New Approach in Agriculture



Joe Toth wrote:
> 
> Current agricultural practices produce food that is
> increasingly hazardous to our health and, at the
> same time, damages the soil and water supply.
> Incredibly, government policies actually penalize
> farmers who attempt to use healthier practices.
> Is this what you want?
> 
> Natural Law Party's John Hagelin
> http://www.natural-law.org
> would promote natural
> sustainable agricultural practices proven to produce
> healthy, high quality food grown without chemical
> fertilizers and pesticides. At the same time, these
> practices preserve the environment for future generations.

These are pretty bold statements without any supporting evidence. These low yield 
production practices result in more land being needed for agricultural production 
to meet even current needs let alone future needs. Yields from organic farming in 
the United States and Europe are only about half as high because organic farmers 
suffer more pest losses and need extra land for pasture, green manure and fallow. 
Historically, the plow has caused far more land degradation than fertilizers and 
pesticides. Afterall, how fertile is the "fertile crescent," now? The negative 
effects of soil erosion have been documented throughout history.

In addition to the famine and wars, these so called sustainable agriculture 
practices would also result in the loss of 100,000's of acres of wildlife habitat 
to agriculture production.

With a growing world population, we need to be able to use all the management tools 
available including cultural, biological and chemical technologies to be 
sustainable.

Blair McClinton
b.mcclinton@sk.sympatico.ca


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