Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
will probably take my stalk chopper and chop it up and plow it under. Then
you've got the greens, your nitrogen source, to go with the stalks, which is
your carbon source. If you plow under straight stalks, those microbes in
the soil need some sort of nitrogen source to process the carbon. And if
they don't have it there, then they will take it out of the organic matter in
the soil. And you can actually deplete the organic matter a little bit. But if
you plow under a nitrogen source, with your carbon source, you are not
depleting the soil of any nitrogen.” He no longer plants corn, due to fear of
contamination by genetically modified organisms, but he still has complex
cropping plans to “keep that balance in the soil.”
Complex rotations are necessary in vegetable production when twenty-
five or thirty crops are produced, not even counting numerous varieties
(that is, “lettuce” counts as one crop, although many types may be grown:
red leaf, green leaf, romaine, etc.). Phil describes one of his many California
crop rotations: “We have a pretty diverse crop mix rotation. We are on a
five-year rotation on alliums, so onions, garlic, shallots, leeks will adhere to
a five-year rotation,” and he notes the financial and ecological benefits of
some crops: “I think now there is enough potential to make decent money
on lettuce, so it is worth keeping it in our rotation. It is fairly quick. It turns
your ground around fairly quickly. It has some benefits with weed control.”
[163],
(14)
Lines: 276 to 288
———
0.0pt PgVar
———
Normal Page
PgEnds: T
E
X
Antipesticides
Not surprisingly, organic farmers are vocal opponents to pesticides, both
insecticides and herbicides. In Florida, Rob says that conventional growers
“don't know anything about working with the resources you have instead
of working with synthetics. All these conventional growers use everything:
herbicides and chemical fertilizers . . . all the skull and crossbones prod-
ucts in the world. That is all they have ever used, so they don't know any
different.”
Joel cites some of his readings:“It's been proven inThirdWorld countries.
A little country in Asia, maybe Indonesia, was the seventh largest user for
pesticides for rice. The government just banned it one year. And within
two years, they had increased their production 10 percent above when they
were using chemicals. And they have this farmer-to-farmer program where
they teach one farmer organically and he goes and teaches other people.
They have now reached a million farmers in their program. But the whole
consensus was that once they were off chemicals they saved a huge amount
on their inputs because they were not spending it.”
Phil and Steve say that being organic may help them attract more and
better seasonal workers. Steve says, “I think it helps a little bit. They know
[163],
(14)
