No surprise - Organic farms better for countryside.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe


Yet even the so-called organic techniques lead to environmental disasters.

As an example Mennonite farmes where I grew up were well known for carting off as much friggin chicken manure as possible to help feritilize corn crops. The net effect was the over nitrated soils and manure run off poisoned the local streams resulting in fish kills and soe mpretty substantial cases of dysentary down stream. (I in fact caught it myself at age 16 from being a complete moron and drinking sparkling clean creek water. Bad Idea )

indeed - i remember hearing about that, i know of others......ah yes the infamous introduction of the Cane Toad into australia that had no prey species and has gone amok(we have them in PNG too - running over them on the roads in breeding season is a disturbing experience!).

There are many such examples where errors in agriculture have been made for sure(regular+enviromentaly friendly versions).

Still learning from these mistakes and building a cleaner enviroment with more healthy farming practises has got to be the way forward.

[DanS]

FYI, organic flies well under the radar with the petro-chemical folks. I know, because I work with them everyday.

But thanks for letting me know just how crazy your ideas are.

[child of Thor]

Your welcome DanS
But dismissing Organic as 'crazy' doesn't help your cause either, especialy in Europe where we are publicaly much more aware than in the USA for example.
I'm not saying i have the specific answers as i've never farmed on a mass scale, what i'm saying is this attitude of dismisal from the petro-chemical giants towards 'alternative' methods should change. If these companies want to continue to make money, they need to adapt to their target markets as that market changes. thats all. They just need to be aware of us crazy pro-organic people(customers)

[child of Thor]

I'm guessing this may be conected, although in the survey it does say that they didn't test organic raised chickens. Still i have a feeling that if they did, they would find far less antibiotic resistant bacteria.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/real_story/4142486.stm

its put me off my weekend chinese, unless i can find an organic take away

oh and i like the quote from the British poultry council, about it being the antibiotics we are taking being the problem - they probably have a point, but if the superbugs are in the chickens, then it must be due to the antibiotics the chikens get with their feed.

[CerberusIV]

Speaking as someone who stopped eating meat from the supermarket because the antibiotics and hormones they pump into the animals made me ill, I'm pretty much in favour of organic food.

However it is labour intensive on any larger scale (then again most of the money you pay in a British supermarket doesn't go to the farmer).

The best answer would be minimum possible use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, etc. but people being people that's difficult to verify.

One tip if you live in the UK. I used to organise a farmers market. If you can get to one they are the best place to buy organic fruit and vegetables - although you do have to be careful and ask questions.

[Atahualpa]

Organic farming

[child of Thor]

Good to see some concesions from the bio-tech industry

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4167040.stm

It's precisely these kind of concerns that they need to address if GM is really going to be taken as being the forward looking technology it wants to be.

[Az]

But the genes used have traditionally come from bacteria - and this has led to concerns that they could find their way back into bacteria, making them resistant to antibiotics used by doctors to treat human disease.

Now I am not a fan of the use of antibiotics, but this sounds like a load of rubbish.

[Kuciwalker]

It is a load of rubbish.