Food Dialogues
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Why do none of the large agribusinesses consider building the soil to be a priority? Chemical farming, far from being traditional, is the antithesis of truly traditional farming, which entails great efforts to build the soil each and every year, leading to healthier plants which are far more resistant to pests and disease without the need for chemical amendments. Addicting plants to chemical fertilizers, much as addicting humans to chemical drugs, can only have a deleterious effect in the long run. Building the soil, conversely, leads to healthier plants and a healthier environment in which to grow them.
Author: Keyspoet
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Topic: Environmental Stewardship
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35
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I think it's a firm belief that what they're doing is the correct and most profitable method. A farmer came into our community to raise alfalfa and insisted on using chemical fertilizer, etc. even though the local farmers used duck manure. He eventually put himself out of business, but to the last he believed it was due to lack of proper equipment, lack of capital and a bunch of other excuses. They don't believe building the soil is as effective as the chemicals.
The soil is the most important ingredient in raising healthy crops. If we are not good stewards of it, it will become sterile sand or clay.
I would argue that chemical farming does build the soil. When you till the soil, as in traditional farming, you are increasing the amount of erosion that soil is subject to. You are also decreasing the amount of residue that is required for the microorganisms in the soil to survive.
Petroleum-derived fertilizers and pesticides yield short-term results that appeal to the corporate mentality, despite the fact that, in combination with monocultural practices, they ultimately destroy the structure and fertility of the soil. Improving the soil takes longer, thus results do not show as dramatically in the near-term bottom line. The long-term results are another matter; soil that is nurtured with natural, rather than chemical, inputs becomes more productive year after year and saves the farmer enormous amounts of money as well as yielding crops that are healthier for consumers, including the farmer's family. Agribusiness deals with the land that it depletes through ever-larger quantities of toxic chemicals.
I strongly disagree with the contention that "traditional" farming necessarily decreases the amount of residue required by microorganisms. Best practices in traditional farming utilize cover crops (green manure) to control erosion over the winter, then plow these residues under in springtime, thus returning their nutrients to the soil.
I'm no chemist, but I believe nitrogen is nitrogen, phosphorous is phosphorous, and potassium is potassium, whether it comes from "natural" or commercial means. Our land would have to be overrun with livestock to produce enough manure to fertilize all our acres to produce enough yield to feed us. I think the emphasis needs to be on producing more with less impact on our resources. And technology is allowing us to do that. It takes much less fertilizer to raise a bushel of grain today than it did 10 years ago. To me, that is being responsible.
Conventional tillage farming greatly degrades soil by creating a compaction layer that plant roots have problems penetrating, removing oxygen from the soil, wrecks soil ecosystem, and soil organic matter continually decreases. If you wish to learn more about soil ecology I urge you to google Jill Clapperton, also if you care to learn about how more mainstream commodity farmers have improved their soils google No Till on the Plains, Dakota Lakes, or DeWayne Beck these are some of the leading resources for many farmers that want to leave more than just equipment and dirt to a possible next generation.
Chemicals are chemicals are chemicals. You can burn out the soil with organic fertilizer just as easily as you can with chemical fertilizer. They are made of the same nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, sulphur, chemical structure either way. Plants cannot become addicted to fertilizer. They have no brain. According to the National Consumer League, the largest consumers of "chemical" fertilizers are American homeowners, who then pollute water when stormwater runoff is emptied into rivers, oceans, creeks, etc., untreated and unfiltered. Homeowners are more apt to use far too much fertilizer per acre than are farmers, farmers put on the bare minimum required. Beyond that, the process of fertilizing the plant, harvesting, and tilling does build the soil or there would be declining crops per acre yearly rather than increasing crops per acre yearly.
Farmers who failed to practice good agriculture lost their land years ago.
How farmers till, how they build and preserve their soil, whether compaction layers are created, all are dependent upon what kind of soil the farmer is working and what kind of crop is being produced. Blanket statements about the only correct way to farm is truly questionable in a country this large and this diverse. For instance, dryland wheat farmers will rough till the land going into summer fallow, then smooth till it when they are getting ready to plant. The top layer of soil is dry, preserving the moisture needed in lower layers of soil for the wheat to grow. This is in sandy, rich soil in some dryland areas. Again, blanket statements about farming are meaningless; statements about agriculture need to be crop specific, climate specific, soil type specific, at the very least. Otherwise, one is literally espousing non-sense.
Part 1
Nitrogen is mined from the air. It goes like this; nitrogen is pulled out of the air and then combined with the hydrogen molecule from natural gas. Once that is accomplished it becomes ammonia (NH3). Ammonia is then injected into the ground and eventually converted to nitrate by nitrobactors. It is the same process that your organic fertilizer goes through. Only NH3 is high analysis at 82% which means it takes lot less truck loads of manure to the fields which is about 3-9%. And that makes NH3 greener by reducing transportation, application and other social and economic issues, than your organic. Plus NH3 can be controlled better because it can be store without loss of N and applied when the plant needs it. Many believe that farmers flush it down rivers and the soil profile. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education or SARE has documented in a study that about 65% of organic farmers flush N through the soil profile verses conventional farmers at about 18%.
You are correct, and thank you for your post.
There is nothing more important in agriculture.
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Because the soil food web is the stomach of the plant, you may wish to read deeper into the subject. If so, please navigate to: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/THE+HEALTY+FOODWEB
Jim Miller