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Monsanto claims genetically-engineered crops are necessary to feed the world and to control weeds and pests. It has also been claimed that organic farms are not as profitable for farmers. Each of these claims has now been conclusively proven false.

According to Science Magazine, “For cotton grown in the South, the cost of using herbicides has climbed from between $50 and $75 per hectare a few years ago to about $370 per hectare today.” The need to apply more and more herbicides makes this practice unsustainable. Science Magazine warns that farmers who rely on the seed and herbicide combo will fail rapidly. "There is no question that GE technology will continue to drive up the costs of food production, increase the use of harmful chemicals and undermine efforts for a sustainable food system. We as citizens need the right to choose if we want to support this disaster scenario."

The Rodale Institute conducted a 30-year comparative Farming Systems Trial. Starting in 1981, it began research comparing organically fertilised fields and conventionally fertilised fields on its 330-acre farm in Pennsylvania, USA. It is the longest running comparative study of its kind in the world. The institute put out The Rodale Institute’s 30-year Farming Systems Trial Report.

 

This report is one of several well-researched reports that have come out in recent years, including the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Failure to Yield report which proves GMOs do not perform as claimed and the IAASTD’s 400-scientist-strong, 3-year worldwide study which concluded that we need to quickly transition back to relocalised, diverse, agroecological methods.

Excerpt from the article: Some countries are recognising that continuing with business as usual is taking them to hell in a hand basket. Water tables are being both exhausted and polluted, soils are steadily eroding and being contaminated, and despite increasing use of pesticides (insecticides and herbicides), ‘pest‘ and disease problems are proving more troublesome than they ever were before the industrial revolution.

 

Indeed, in every area we’re seeing that applying a factory-floor mindset to our fields is resulting in our getting less and less out whilst putting more and more in. With resources failing, this is becoming critical. There is a litany of other problems directly created by our present ‘mainstream’ methods of agriculture — from personal physical and mental health, to unemployment, crime, social disintegration, greed, and, perhaps the greatest problem of all, growing detachment and ignorance about that most important area of knowledge: biology and the lessons it teaches us about the interconnectness, and thus the interdependencies, of life.
 

The EU is now debating a shift in its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidy program, so as to move more towards supporting ‘greener’ farmers. Given we’re talking about a full 47% of the EU’s entire budget, this is not an insignificant debate, and is thus also an area where Big Ag’s lobbyists will be doing everything they can to water down the result (just as they did for the last rehash of the U.S. Farm Bill). Still, I think we can see the writing on the wall for industrial agriculture. It is making sense, and cents, for less and less people, and its implementation is seeing our world getting increasingly ugly, on every front.
 

While water and soil depletion can occur very rapidly, restoring them to their former state takes much longer, with a much greater input of energy. This is particularly so when our natural systems are so far out of balance that our work is constantly attacked by the darker side of the forces of nature. In short, if we don’t act quickly, then trying to restore our ecosystems back to stabilised health whilst simultaneously feeding, housing and mollycoddling our ever-growing and ever-more-demanding populations will become all but impossible.


The Rodale Institute’s 30-year report begs the question — will we spend another thirty years comparing sustainable farming methods with industrial farming methods, or will we do what needs to be done, and get rid of the latter entirely?

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