I buy some organic products and part of my concern is soil management. From what I’ve heard, our soils are not replenished due to rotation, and thus we’re overly dependent on oil for fertilizers to keep the soil “healthy”. If it were the UK France, or NZ, I might not have a problem with that. But... since it’s the Middle East, I get overly concerned.
Do you have an opinion on that? It’s hard to find a non-organic farmer that comments on such things.
Nitrogen, which is a large component of corn production, is produced using natural gas. We have hundreds, maybe thousands of years supply of natural gas, if only the government will get out of the way.
Potash, maybe the next most used fertilizer, comes from mines, the largest of which is located in Canada. Interestingly, the company stock symbol is POT.
I’m not sure where the critically important trace fertilizers come from, I think here in the US, but I’m not sure.
Crop rotation is determined by a number of factors, all of which boil down to profitability. Corn on corn for years at a time works on some soils, and with the advent of GM seeds, very effective herbicides and insecticides can be used to keep the fields weed and insect free. I’m still amazed when I see large weed free fields that have never seen a weed cultivator.
Farming practices have changed in the last couple of decades, and the crop residue leaves an excellent seed bed for the following years crops.
Nitrogen fixing crops, such as soybeans and alfalfa, are often used as rotational crops in the Midwest (were I grew up) and with the advent of GM soybean seeds soybeans have become more attractive to most farmers. The GM seeds allow for (esp.) herbicides that kill all the weeds INCLUDING any corn. Corn growing as a weed in soybeans has been a big problem in the past. GM solved that.
Generally, soils have improved over the years. It’s the very lifeblood for a farmer, and he treats soils like he would a newborn child, with great care. He wants his sons to have the same, or better soils than he has now.
Few, if any farmers are anti-organic. They just realize that as with everything else, the world has moved on, and true organic will only lead to mass starvation.
On the other hand, the advent of GM crops allows greater production of ‘organic’ because not every acre is need for food production for the general populace.