Comments for Veganic Takes Farming to New Level at http://envirovore.com , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://envirovore.com Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:49:26 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://envirovore.com/content/view/183/9/#comment-634 [i][quote]What do you call farmers who don\'t use synthetic fertilizers or even organically approved pesticides and also avoid animal-derived products?[/quote][/i] I don\'t think that they will be able to maintain their soil bank account. Perhaps if they chose to keep ruminants as pets. Then they could benefit from the grazing benefits conferred not to mention the nutrient cycling. And the increased options for rotations (though fencing is required) It is possible to feed the soil by growing crops / green manure. Understand that this is very energy intensive (not to mention that that acreage is removed from the food supply). Since many people have no real connection to the on the ground realities of growing food in a contrived market-place -such is food land North America. The old practice of leaving the land fallow every 7 years to feed the soil has largely been abandoned in the new society of MORE NOW please. The law of return heeds no long term exceptions. And in short speaks to why agri-business is a short term fools game with much pain for the grand kids, and us. Shipping food to cities and then pumping that human manure generated into lakes and oceans is highly moronic behavior for people claiming intellectual superiority in the food chain. We need a system where people compost their manure, not infuse that with toxic chemicals -paints make-up and cleaning products compost it and then return it to the soil. In many countries like China for example this practice is routine (night soil). Since big corporate agri-business is motivated by one thing then it is not surprising to learn that they feed things like chicken shit and bubble gum to cows. When those cows should be eating grass. But if they eat grass versus a diet high in grains (High omega 6\'s) then they take much longer to bring to market therefore it costs more. And people will be less mchappy. The only mid-term sustainable farming model known is the small mixed farm. (midterm being centuries, at which point land suited should probably be allowed to return to forest (if that was the dominant sere)for several centuries and then return. That farmer can sequester carbon, rotate crops, has a source of ammoniacal nitrogen (a challenge without chemical fertilizers)and can maintain some diversity to protect his seeds and livestock diversity. [quote]Clinch said: GM farmers (who use GM crops resistant to pests, and can thrive without copious amounts of fertilizer)[/quote] Good luck selling that idea. That\'s no doubt straight off the brochure. A massive new study was completed that shows that g.m. crops have fulfilled only one promise, that being they sell more herbicides for the Monsanto\'s of the world. They don\'t provide the yield benefits and there is a lot of massaging done to the reported success. - Robin Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:53:41 +0100 http://envirovore.com/content/view/183/9/#comment-630 Ah yes, one more thing for the vegans to get all self righteous about. - Jeed Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:42:31 +0100 http://envirovore.com/content/view/183/9/#comment-584 Thanks for your comment. Indeed, insect-resistant crops reduced pesticide use in the U.S. by about 5 percent when they were first introduced. Yet the gains seem to be short-lived and cancelled out by the increase in herbicide use on herbicide-tolerant crops, which increased by 138 million pounds between 1996 and 2005. India - Kiki Hubbard Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:09:57 +0100 http://envirovore.com/content/view/183/9/#comment-583 [quote]What do you call farmers who don\'t use synthetic fertilizers or even organically approved pesticides and also avoid animal-derived products?[/quote] GM farmers (who use GM crops resistant to pests, and can thrive without copious amounts of fertilizer) - Clinch Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:26:46 +0100