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Date: | Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:47:24 -0500 |
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I think people seem to confuse organic agriculture (which is mostly
industrial farming done differently) and a sustainable natural system
of farming often referred to as permaculture these days. Whatever
organic was back in the 60s and 70s was transformed into a massively
costly and fragile system that requires almost as much fossil fuel
input (in some cases more) as standard commercial farming. Organic
free range chickens are still packed on top of each other, organic
free range cattle are still kept on feed lots, and there are massive
plots of monocrop greens and carrots and whatever.
As both a farmer and a beekeeper who practices both GMO market crop
farming and sustainable produce farming I can say that I am not too
sure if there is an answer to the problem. The main problem is
meeting a demand and greed both on the seller and the consumer.
Cheap food breeds a cheap food culture and it becomes a cycle. I
think the only way to exact a certain level of change is to change the
pricing structure. Make food cost more. Eating habits will change.
Demand will lessen, local farmers and region farmers will be better
capable of meeting demands and what they are unable to produce for
national larger farms will be able to meet the demand without having
to rely on a ridiculously cheap foreign supplier of questionable
quality. I have no clue how you achieve this type of change except by
educating people what is good and what isn't. That is a tough thing
to do, but possible, at least locally and on a small scale.
Organic these days simply means a tax you pay to enable you to place a
label on a product to sell at a higher price. That is TRULY what it
is. There are changes, don't get me wrong, but it is by no means
sustainable.
No different than honey really. The demand for honey in this country
means honey gets cheaper (even though we have seen a rise recently)
because we beekeepers are get dumped on, when it should mean the
opposite. Organic honey for .89 cents a pound. Utter rubbish and an
insult if you ask me. Their beekeepers should be making more and we
should be competing fairly and at a fair price. The cheaper it gets
the higher the demand and the more crap comes in....the more fraud and
the more hazards we see effecting our people.
Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio
An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855
(513) 967-1106
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com
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