Organic Farming: Can It Feed Us? (Part 2)

VVH-TV News Special
Organic Farming: Can It Feed Us? Part 2

Karl Grossman Chief Investigative Reporter examines Organic Farming on Eastern Long Island.

What is organic farming?
Organic farming can be defined as an approach to agriculture where the aim is to create integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production systems. Maximum reliance is placed on locally or farm-derived renewable resources and the management of self-regulating ecological and biological processes and interactions in order to provide acceptable levels of crop, livestock and human nutrition, protection from pests and diseases, and an appropriate return to the human and other resources employed. Reliance on external inputs, whether chemical or organic, is reduced as far as possible. In many European countries, organic agriculture is known as ecological agriculture, reflecting this reliance on ecosystem management rather than external inputs.

The objective of sustainability lies at the heart of organic farming and is one of the major factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of specific production practices. The term 'sustainable' is used in its widest sense, to encompass not just conservation of non-renewable resources (soil, energy, minerals) but also issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The term 'organic' is best thought of as referring to the concept of the farm as an organism, in which all the component parts - the soil minerals, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, animals and humans - interact to create a coherent and stable whole.

The key characteristics of organic farming include:

protecting the long term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, encouraging soil biological activity, and careful mechanical intervention;

providing crop nutrients indirectly using relatively insoluble nutrient sources which are made available to the plant by the action of soil micro-organisms;

nitrogen self-sufficiency through the use of legumes and biological nitrogen fixation, as well as effective recycling of organic materials including crop residues and livestock manures;

weed, disease and pest control relying primarily on crop rotations, natural predators, diversity, organic manuring, resistant varieties and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention;

the extensive management of livestock, paying full regard to their evolutionary adaptations, behavioural needs and animal welfare issues with respect to nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing;

careful attention to the impact of the farming system on the wider environment and the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats.

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[ConflictAfrica]

Monsanto can go to hell with a kerosene suit on!!

[preacain]

monsanto seeds are bad!

[KingRyltar]

To be sure food is safe and organic...we must push to not only know what is in every box, cartoon or can we buy...but to know where the seeds came from.

Monsanto and big agro, have fought to keep the ingredients and seed manipulation hidden from the public..for good reason , they are poisoning the consumer.

[soilhumic]

Some research is just paralyses of analysis, but the best effective research is done on the farm by the private sector, not by universities. Regardless of that fact, Humic substances and Mycorrhizal fungus benefits are heavily researched and are now well understood as vital essential parts of building healthy soils. Soil Secrets llc alone has spent millions on research on Humic substance molecular characteristics.

[shotgunblade31]

Basalt rock dust establishes optimum soil conditions that could reduce the rate of loss of released nutrient element by leaching, and provide a readily available nutrient source for plants. Basalt igneous rocks contain a broad spectrum of up to 100 minerals and trace elements necessary for the well being of all life and the creation of fertile soils. 4 more info Skype gmw,llc

[suddenlyitsobvious]

In reality the term "organic" and talk about it's "market share" is deceptive and used as some type of "Newspeak", in the sense that it is being presented as some new, innovative, rather exceptional way of producing food -which is of course reflected in the price...

Humanity has ALWAYS eaten organic until aberrant agro-monsters took over and started producing nutrient-deficient toxic foods.

Let's remember that the NORM should be natural, healthy food, not chemical garbage.

[saintmj57]

wow !! i hear that praying near ur garden is the best grow aid....def organic is best !

[saintmj57]

wow.....btw..... this store STARTED the supermarket as we know it over fifty years ago.....an seems to be still leading the way......

[bigmuso123]

kill monsanto

[MajesticChicken]

I can't wait for the day to watch Monsanto crumble in a heap so I can run over and piss on it's ashes.

[charleydan]

Organic--a process sanctioned by a government that I do not trust or big business that is pushing it for profits. I wonder how many have studied the process of creating nutritious food. So they know what they really need or just except organic.

I for one will not accept grass fed beef as nutritious. After all the more different foods one eats gives more nutritious diet.

Growing your own. I wonder if you will make sure the soil is nutritious. For what you feed the product is what you get.