Fun with Organic agriculture

[royalfan5]

I'm doing some research for my job on organic agriculture. I have found that it is immensely fun to read both sides jabs about destroying the enviroment. Conventional agriculture makes some good points as there are somethings you must do with organic farming that are bad for the land, and quite frankly organic farming is and always should be a niche market. Either way it is fun to watch organic touchy-feely stuff get ripped to shreds. However, I am for organic farming in the sense that there is a market for it, and it allows producers more flexibility in their operations, even if organic farms may not be as sustainable as people want you to believe.

[SoonerInKCMO]

What kind of difference in crop yields does one get with organic farming vs. conventional?

I read recently that a number of fertilizer producers have started moving operations to outside of the U.S. because of declining natural gas production; but the book this was in didn't give any references for that particular topic. Have you read anything about that?

[IB4OU2]

I'm doing some research for my job on organic agriculture. I have found that it is immensely fun to read both sides jabs about destroying the enviroment. Conventional agriculture makes some good points as there are somethings you must do with organic farming that are bad for the land, and quite frankly organic farming is and always should be a niche market. Either way it is fun to watch organic touchy-feely stuff get ripped to shreds. However, I am for organic farming in the sense that there is a market for it, and it allows producers more flexibility in their operations, even if organic farms may not be as sustainable as people want you to believe.

Why do you hate Mother Earth News?

[royalfan5]

What kind of difference in crop yields does one get with organic farming vs. conventional?

I read recently that a number of fertilizer producers have started moving operations to outside of the U.S. because of declining natural gas production; but the book this was in didn't give any references for that particular topic. Have you read anything about that?
Organic tends to be less, a lot of which comes from using inferior seedstock. The cost of fertilizer has lead to a decrease in corn acres this year and increases in Soybean and milo acres.

[Osce0la]

I thought this was going to be another thread about limesex :rolleyes:

[TUSooner]

***Conventional agriculture makes some good points as there are somethings you must do with organic farming that are bad for the land....
So what are some of those bad things? Seriously, I'm just curious.

[12]

My wife has been on an organic kick for about a year now. I can't taste anything different, though she swears it is much better. I somehow thought that for the price of organic groceries, it would be like eating a slice of Heaven.

[royalfan5]

So what are some of those bad things? Seriously, I'm just curious.
Remember how the dust bowl was excerbated by the fact that everybody just plowed everything underwith a moldboard plow? You still have to use moldboard and chisel plows for organic farming because no-til and min-til require more chemicals. You can't no-til organic, doesn't work. In addition you need lots of manure for nitrogren which can lead to more nitrogen run-off than NH3, plus you have to follow a different set of rules when applying manure due to pathogen's.