Return to modern farming, please
 

IT’S becoming clear that we can grow all the food we need, and profitably, with far fewer chemicals. And I’m not talking about imposing some utopian vision of small organic farms on the world. Conventional agriculture can shed much of its chemical use — if it wants to.

This was hammered home once again in what may be the most important agricultural study this year, although it has been largely ignored by the media, two of the leading science journals and even one of the study’s sponsors, the often hapless Department of Agriculture.

The study was done on land owned by Iowa State University called the Marsden Farm. On 22 acres of it, beginning in 2003, researchers set up three plots: one replicated the typical Midwestern cycle of planting corn one year and then soybeans the next, along with its routine mix of chemicals. On another, they planted a three-year cycle that included oats; the third plot added a four-year cycle and alfalfa. The longer rotations also integrated the raising of livestock, whose manure was used as fertilizer.

The results were stunning: The longer rotations produced better yields of both corn and soy, reduced the need for nitrogen fertilizer and herbicides by up to 88 percent, reduced the amounts of toxins in groundwater 200-fold and didn’t reduce profits by a single cent.

Much more at: A Simple Fix for Farming - NYTimes.com

What about the profit losses the fertilizer and herbicide companies will endure?

It's like asking doctors to treat without pills.

If you're into that ^^^ you might like this

Fertilisers for use in organic systems : Soil Association

What about the buggy whip manufacturers? Automobiles put them out of work. They should've had a union with connections in DC.

Monsanto will not like a return to modern farming.

That is the primary problem with new technologies. They will eliminate jobs.

Imagine if someone invented a device like the transporter from Star Trek or the Portal gun from Portal. It would never see the light of day.

LOL!! I'm all for organic farming. It just seems that the food chain is controlled by some pretty big companies.

I try to grow my own food as I'm able and buy organic and locally farmed foods that are available.

Very interesting. I spent a fair bit of time recently in Upstate NY where there a lot of Amish who farm with traditional methods. I became very curious about their successes but so far have not found any data or had a chance to talk to them about their practices. I don't know if they use chemical fertilizers. I doubt that they do. They work their farms without tractors.

Love the link! Thanks.

I think worst case scenario is nothing changes. Best case scenario... how would things change, in your opinion? I'd love to see more people growing their own even when it makes the neighbourhood "ugly". Especially if people had enough land to do something substantial. Probably a fair bit of job creation in that too.

Here's some info on Amish farms. It doesn't mention chemical fertilizers but I've never seen a liquid fertilizer/pesticide applicator pulled behind a horse.

Horse and Human Labor Estimates for Amish Farms

Largely ignored by the media . . . but it's in the NY Times?

And another:

Farm

This piece appears to state that they do use chemicals in the kind of way suggested in the NYT piece.

More proof that there's little truth in the "sustainable = lower yields" rationale. Chemicals have their place at times, whether it's fertilizer, pest control or medicinal use on livestock. I don't believe the rational use of chemicals has caused the problems we're facing, rather the irrational dependence on them by so much of corporate ag. Great link, thanks!

Better yet, plant your own!

It will be interesting to see what becomes of Monsanto in the coming years. Once Roundup came off patent and generics drove the price of glyphosate down, their only solution was to come up with different formulations of Roundup. Dry formulations, higher concentrates, different surfactants, etc. Different colored lipstick on the same pig, at a much lower price.

Several of their Roundup-Ready genes are now nearing the end of the patent. I'm not quite sure how they plan to sustain (ironic!) themselves. Scott's RR bentgrass for golf course use was in the works but that's come to a screeching halt.

I am really pleased that B posted this information. I have always suspected it was possible. I had always heard that the Amish do it with only natural fertalizer though.

We also have a large Amish community, not far from where I live, in southern York County PA ( Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse etc). The strangest sight ( other than one young lady walking straight thru the horse manure on her way into the general store), was a horse-drawn hay wagon, with a Honda engine mounted in the wagon to power the hay rake.

The only way it will change is if they buy a few congressman.

I'm going organic, slowly. The soil I am starting with has been terribly depleted for decades. First was clearcutting the forest. Then planting cotton for goodness knows how long. It never had crop rotation as the subsistence farmers were convinced that 13-13-13 and ammonium nitrate would cure anything. So I have about 3 ft of silty sand punctuated by hardpan. It hardly even grows bahia. I'm easing into annual grass cover crop tilled in and followed by mostly legumes.

After I finally retire I'll have livestock in the rotation. I found a nearby source of broiler house chicken litter that I intend to till into the soil at the end of the next growing season (I did that in the 1970's and the freaking cattle ate the chicken poop & litter!). In the future I hope to go no-till.

I'm on the 10 year plan, I guess. I'm starting at about a half-acre and eventually intend to max out at 4 acres of intensively grown veggies. I'll eat all I can and sell the rest.

IMO, barring global catastrophe, we will never get completely away from industrial farming. Instead, farmers will ease into increasing no-till (which is very popular around here) and some minor rotation (which is also increasing around here). The economy of scale is just too great at this juncture and small farms are just too much damned work for most people to endure and to expensive to realize a profit.

I have seen a revolution in fertilizer and pesticide applications in both chemistry and in application. This reduces the pollution and expense from industrial farming. Using GM and pesticides is currently controversial but I think it is inevitable. Using GPS allows the farmer to automagically adjust pesticides and fertilizers while the tractor is in motion, if the farmer will bear the expense of detailed soil analysis and periodic pest management scouting.

A great change in industrial farming would come about if we changed from a socialist agricultural model to a free market system, in which farmers would have a genuine risk associated with long-term bad practices. Also there should be stronger disincentives for farming marginal land as marginal land degradation directly impacts downstream farms, forests, ranches and urban areas. That is a proper role of gov.

No till is the best I think. Over the years I discovered that at just below tiller blade depth I was essentially creating a buried hardpan where it was being repeatedly packed by the tiller blades bottoming out. The only time I till anymore is when opening new ground.
We're essentially organic, but I'm not hardline with either the garden or the animals. I'll use a chemical to save a life or a crop I've busted my butt planting and taking care of.

Amish motorhome
 

Not farming but one of their related businesses.

That's my general attitude, too. Fortunately where I will live there isn't a need for irrigation.

This spring I'm planting G-90 for the first time. Gawd I love sweet corn pulled in the morning! I can eat it right out of the husk (once you get the worm out ...).

Didn't reduce farmers' profits?

That's what popped my tart.

Well, sell your Monsanto stock and get on with the crop rotation.

If I remember correctly it was the replication technology in Star Trek that eliminated scarcity which led to a world without currency.....

Here is version 0.0.0.1-a Formlabs - High Resolution Desktop 3D Printer

Got rid of Lugar, that's a start. Get rid of Grassley and we'll be even better off.

They suck corn off Monsanto's gnarly cob.

I see some pretty broad assumptions based on what people see on TV and read here or there. If that's really the case, then most of the opinions I read here follow the same basic '' know a little say a lot '' formula.:)

Why not ask someone who actually farms for a living? 22 acres is going to give you results that you can trust or count on? I see even smaller test plots than that and I'm always a bit suspicious of these things. It might work right where the test plot is but not at my place.

There are so many variables in arigulture that I'm having a good laugh at what I just read. Who are you going to sell these oats to? They're worth about $2.50 a bushel and they need nitrogen to grow - you should do well on that one. Put cow **** on it? Sure, but you might run into run off problems in certain places at different times of the year and suddenly you have a visit from the enviro cops.

We use no till for everything. We do some tillage and very rarely use a mould board plough anymore. This was all we did 10 -15 years ago. While we can grow corn here, our main two crops are winter wheat and soya beans. Both comodities are at record high pices right now. Wheat needs nitrogen and soya beans make their own - they both need P & K.

We had livestock but got out of that over 10 years ago. So I know all about crop rotation and manure. Thing is, there are very few livestock operations around here now so we have to depend on chemical fertilizer. We also seed red clover into the wheat in the spring and work it into the soil later in the fall. I just started using oil radish after wheat and have plants right now that are now 8 inches long and growing really well. Oil radish will die in the winter below - 25F. Red clover won't and has to be ploughed down or disced in. Both of these cover crops add a lot of nitrogen and organic matter to the soil and they won't polute nearby streams.

Roundup is now cheap but that's not how Monstatan works. They changed a single gene they put into their new soyabean variety and got a new patent for it. The old variety was phased out a couple of years before that patent ran out so you still can't save your own seed.:mad: We tried using other chemicals but they didn't work as well as roundup.
I'm in it to make money but I'm also trying to build my land up using these cover crops. If I quit using chemicals and fertilizer I might as well quit farming. I'd have weeds right up to my eyeballs and nothing to harvest. Ever try unplugging a combine filled with weeds? Try it a few times and get back to me. A lot of my land is rented - I'm not going to go out of my way to build up someome's land and then be out bid or have it sold out from under me.

This is a business not a hobby. We've been here for 98 years so we must be doing something right. Believe me, everyone is always trying to reduce costs and boost yields and/or profit margines. It's when margines are low that farmers tend to mine their land because they can't afford to make a mistake or try something new. The farming undustry is very productive and always looking for new ideas. With higher prices right now farmers are willing to try things like cover crops - it all costs money and they have to see a clear benifit from it. If the goverment ran their operation as well as the better farmers do things would look pretty good right now.

Great description of the situation we have worked ourselves into.

Of course, one study on one farm isn't good and sufficient reason to change everything. But it is a damned good reason to expand the research over a broader area and conditions. It is also great reason for all farmers and ranchers to critically look at what they do and why. I remember back in the 1970's when 'no-till' was mostly a buncha crazed hippies and now it is s.o.p. under many circumstances. Also, crop rotation was s.o.p. until 'modern' machinery, fertilizers and pesticides offered cheaper, mor efficient alternatives. Then Rachel Carson, Love Canal, etc came along and folks started cracking-down on cheaper persistent pesticides and began using more expensive biodegradable pesticides.

Nothing is constant, nothing is certain, except that tomorrow will be different from today in some unforeseen, unpredictable way.

"We always did it that way" were not the last 6 words of Jesus Christ.