Organic Agriculture Can’t Feed the World... What?

The following text (greatly Para-phrased) is from an interview with Will Harris III, by Diego Footer.  Diago has a podcast called Permaculture Voices.  This interview is from podcast episode 28: Industrial Farmer to Beyond Organic Icon, Will Harris III of White Oak Pastures.

Some people say “Organic farming methods will never be able to feed the world’s growing population.”

I say…

That is an interesting statement, and I would like to discuss it with you.  But before we have that discussion, I would like to stipulate and agree to the fact that neither “organic” farming systems, nor “conventional” farming systems will feed the world if the population grows indefinitely, forever.  Certainly, the world has a maximum carrying capacity.  Most people will agree to that point.

So then, I’ll concede to you right now, that conventional farming systems (e.g. centralized, commoditized, industrialized, mono-culture) can produce more food per acre, if land is the limiting factor.  But, if fossil fuel becomes the limiting factor, then organic farming systems win – because organic farming systems easily produce more food per acre with much less fossil fuel usage.  And if water becomes the limiting factor, then organic wins – because organic farming systems easily produce more food per acre with less water than conventional farming systems can.  And if antibiotic resistant pathogens become the limiting factor, then organic wins again – because organic farming systems rely much less on antibiotics than conventional farming systems do.  And if pollution becomes the limiting factor, then organic wins yet again – because organic systems pollute much less than conventional systems.  And if environmental disasters (such as the dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico) become the limiting factor, then organic wins again.  And this can go on and on.

It is not as simple as coming to a conclusion based on current conditions alone.  There are many factors involved, which may change in the future.  Organic farming systems have more chances to win.

With that concept in mind, I started thinking about how conventional farming systems currently work, the dependencies involved, and just how fragile a system it really is.  The quantity and complexities of these dependencies is vast.

The following list (rather dis-organized) is intended as fodder – just to get you thinking about what could happen.  If something would change with any one of these items, or with multiple items, it could have a huge impact upon conventional farming systems.

• Fossil fuel
• Current and future fossil fuel reserves
• consider the concept of “peak oil”
• Politics and wars with foreign countries where fossil fuels exist
• think about all the wars fought in the middle-east over oil
• The ability to safely extract fossil fuels
• remember the recent BP oil well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
• consider “fracking” methods
• The ability to safely transport fossil fuels
• remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill
• think about the current Keystone XL pipeline controversy
• Government
• USDA, FDA, & EPA influences and regulations
• GMO labeling
• International Trade (free trade, tariffs, sanctions, Trans-Pacific Partnership, etc.)
• Food Freedom (think Raw Milk)
• Economy
• think great depression
• think recession of 2008
• think “housing crisis”, “banking crisis”, “energy crisis”
• Politics
• think Farm Bill
• think “do nothing congress”
• Technology
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
• Antibiotics
• Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.
• Green Energy (e.g. solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, etc.)
• High-Tech products
• think tractors and combines that depend upon computers and GPS
• think chip implants into livestock
• Industries
• Oil/Energy
• AG Equipment (tractors, implements, etc.)
• Transportation/shipping (trucking, rail, air, sea, etc.)
• think about the current rail car shortage impacting corn producers
• Groceries/retail
• Stock Markets/Investments
• Banking
• Labor Unions
• Health Issues (possibly linked to chemical use by conventional farming methods)
• Diseases (e.g. cancer, diabetes, autism, obesity, etc.)
• Early puberty issues
• Environment
• Natural/normal weather patterns (storms, drought, fires, etc.)
• remember the October 4, 2013 blizzard in SD
• think about the droughts in TX, CA, etc.
• remember “Super Storm Sandy”
• Global warming
• think about changing growing seasons and zones (e.g. frost-safe dates, first-frost dates, min/max/avg temperatures, moisture rates, wind velocity, etc.)
• think about loss of farm land to flooding, population relocation, etc.
• Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder crisis
• Water (quantity, quality, etc.)
• remember West Virginia chemical spill
• remember Toledo water crisis
• think PowerTech Uranium Mining proposal
• Pollution
• Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
• Toxic waste from North Dakota Oil Fields

I’m certain you could add many more items to this list.  Thinking about what could change with any one item in the list, the probability of change, and how a change could impact the food on your table (via conventional AG systems), is scary enough.  Then think about a combination of changes in multiple areas.  Mind blowing!

For example, suppose someday IF someone proved that autism is caused by Roundup Ready BT corn.  Wow!  That would change the entire conventional farming system from top to bottom!  Or imagine if the Ogallala aquifer became contaminated or experienced decreased production due to extended drought (like in TX or CA).  Wow!  That would change conventional farming greatly as well. 

And yes, these potential changes could also impact organic farming.  But in all likelihood, to a much lesser extent – especially if “organic” is combined with “local”.  That is the way we put food on the table for ten thousand years, up until "conventional" farming methods developed within the last 100 years or so.  And that is my point.

Do you still want to bet on conventional farming as the best way to feed the world’s growing population?

Rick Grosek

Bear Butte Gardens

www.BearButteGardens.com

Rick@BearButteGardens.com

Self-Created Problems – Part 1 - Lawn Care Herbicides

Michelle and I have noticed a great number of birds hanging out at Bear Butte Gardens this year – way more than in past years.  We've had flocks of Robins, Meadowlarks, Sparrows, Black Birds, Prairie Chickens, and Finches.  I've never seen a flock of Robins before this year.  It was cool!  We've had Blue Birds, Mourning Doves, and many more varieties.  I've been asking around if other people are noticing a lot of birds this year.  “No” they say.  “Not any more than any other year.”

So I’m wondering… the birds must be attracted to our property for a reason.  Then, the other day we noticed something.  We saw a flock of birds land on our front lawn and start feeding on… Dandelion seeds!  The aggressiveness and thoroughness of the birds eating those seeds let me to wonder if any seeds would survive the feeding frenzy!  Hmm… maybe this is the balance Mother Nature intended?  Those bright yellow flowers certainly seemed to attract birds.  If we would spray chemicals on our lawn to kill the Dandelions (like many people do), then we probably would not attract so many birds – and the birds would not keep our Dandelion seeds in check.

Dandelions are actually very beneficial in many ways.  They have deep tap roots that break-up hard soil and bring nutrients to the surface.  In a way, they actually fertilize and aerate the soil to the benefit of other plants, like grass.  Dandelions provide nectar to bees – and at a very important time of year when bees don’t have many other options for nectar.  Dandelions have many nutritional, health, and medicinal benefits as well.  Visit www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=756 for more information about the benefits of Dandelions.

With all the benefits of Dandelions, I just don’t understand why so many people spray chemical herbicides on their lawns to kill the Dandelions.  Chemical herbicides have so many negative side effects also.  Even though the lawn chemical companies say their products are safe, I have serious doubts.  You might think that some government agency, like the EPA, requires complete testing of these products for the safety of kids and pets.  Well, you would be wrong.  And, besides the kid and pet safety concern, there are many, many more risks.  Visit www.organiclawncare101.com/dark-lawns.html for more information about the risks of lawn care products.

If you don’t spray chemicals on your lawn to kill the Dandelions, then you get some benefits (like birds & bees), and you avoid creating all of these other problems.  Win/win? Of course, your lawn might not be a “pretty” as you might want, but where exactly did you get your idea of a pretty lawn anyhow?  From some commercial on TV?  From someone trying to sell you something?  Just sayin’.

Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, South Dakota
www.BearButteGardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com

Projects, Lessons, Networking

It's March 19th which means tomorrow is officially.........SPRING!  Yay!  Interesting thing though, it's felt like spring for a long time and I attribute that to two reasons: 1) we've had an abnormally warm winter the past month or so and, 2) all of the garden planning and seeding and greenhouse building we've been doing the past couple months have made it SEEM like spring even though it was winter.  That's all good for me.  I'm not naturally a winter person.  I have to convince myself to enjoy winter and see all the positives it can present, so a very long extended spring is just fine with me.

I've had some very enjoyable experiences as well as had the opportunity to learn some good lessons over the past month.  I received several shipments of seeds which I had ordered for this year's gardens.  Each shipment just feels like the best birthday present EVER!  My husband and son and I also made a trip to Bozeman, MT, to visit our daughter for several days.  Trips to Bozeman are always enjoyable events because I so appreciate the healthy attitude which is all about Bozeman.  It's just in the air there.  I like Bozeman so much that I don't think I'd ever want to live there because the shininess might wear off, if you know what I mean.

While we were in Bozeman I had the opportunity to visit a local farm/CSA called Gallatin Valley Botanical and meet the owners, Jacy and Matt.  Even though their set-up has a lot of differences in how we are planning to or are doing things, there are some commonalities, too.  It was so nice to see how another CSA is gearing up for the season.

Evidently the planets were all aligned when we visited Bozeman because I was also able to line up the purchase of nearly 200 pounds of organic certified seed potatoes from Kimm's Organic Seed Potatoes.  This was one of those situations that was borne out of my lack of foresight (a lesson hopefully learned) that led to a wonderful meet-up with Yvonne Kimm, the owner of Kimm's Organic Seed Potatoes.

The week before our trip to Bozeman I decided it was time to get my seed potato order in and started checking out online places to order the potatoes.  I had made some quick calls about the Black Hills to find out there really weren't any opportunities locally to buy local organic seed potatoes, and then started the online quest.  I did finally find a couple places to order the potatoes and saw that many varieties were already sold out for the 2012 season (lesson), but this being my first year of growing organic potatoes, I wasn't in a terribly picky state of mind.  I just wanted at least a couple varieties with one being a good storage potato so hopefully I can have extras to put in a root cellar in the fall.  So, I finally got my order lined out with an out-of-state company and got to the "add on shipping and handling" portion and realized that for 200 pounds of seed potatoes I would be paying approximately $200 in shipping.  Yikes!  Up until now I'd only been ordering seeds, so shipping was very minimal or even free.  I hadn't even considered the fact that 200 pounds of seed potatoes would weigh 200 pounds!  Yep, seems obvious, doesn't it?  At this point I began to get a little panicky.  The shipping cost would throw my seed budget way out of whack, yet I dare not wait very long or I wouldn't have any organic options at all.  So then I started thinking, "where could I potentially drive and pick up organic seed potatoes"........ah ha!  We were heading for Bozeman in a few days!

After several phone calls, interesting conversations, and e-mails around the Bozeman area, I finally hooked up with Yvonne Kimm and was thrilled to find out that they did have 4-5 varieties of certified organic seed potatoes available right now and yes they could hook me up with around 200 pounds while we were in Bozeman.  Woohoo!  So while we were visiting our daughter, we made a drive out to the Kimm Farm and had a chance to talk with Yvonne and learn a little about the family's several generation conventional seed potato business and how that had by chance given way to a side business of organic seed potatoes for Yvonne.  I'm so glad it did!  From that visit I ended up with Yukon Golds, Russets, Cherry Reds, and Fingerling potatoes and I can't wait to get those babies in the ground.

Another lesson I have learned in the past month is that no matter how nice it may seem in the greenhouse, you (meaning I) should not assume baby seedlings will want to make the big move from inside the 60-70 degree house under grow lamps to the big bright 40 to 100 degree greenhouse.  So my baby onions unfortunately provided me with a good lesson about the need to slowly adapt tender seedlings (even if they are just onions) to a new setting.  A visitor to the greenhouse suggested that I should probably just start early season seedlings like onions right in the greenhouse so they have a heads up right at germination about what's in store for them.  So yesterday I seeded another 1000 onions and placed them immediately in the greenhouse for hopefully a better outcome.

Along with the onions I have also seeded parsley, basil, leeks, and cabbage.  Right now I'm seeding as quickly as I can make soil blocks which come 50 to a tray for the 2-inch size or 300 per tray for the micro's.

Last week we also had the opportunity to meet Trish and Jeremy from Cycle Farm (www.cyclefarm.wordpress.com) in Spearfish.  I had been conversing with them through e-mail and phone for a few weeks, so it was so nice to finally get to meet them.  They came out to our place to look at our new greenhouse as they are hoping to build a greenhouse soon on their acreage.  Again, their acreage has many differences in comparison to ours, but we have a lot of common goals and ideals so it is fun to talk gardening and healthy living with them.

And finally, two other things we've been working on:  our NRCS application for their high tunnel cost share program and the organic certification application.  We just found out on Friday that we have been fully approved for our NRCS cost share application, so that means a new high tunnel is in our near future.  Yay!  And I am on the downhill side of our organic certification application which has really made us think through the next several years of garden management and cropland management.  I believe that's all to our advantage and I look forward to the challenge of becoming organic certified.

Enjoy your spring and please e-mail, call, or Facebook message us if you'd like to compare lessons!

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
www.BearButteGardens.com
605-490-2919
email:  Michelle@BearButteGardens.com

Endless Planning!

I am in Week 8 of 2012 and already feel like I have utilized the weeks of this new year very well!  Let me illustrate:

Week 1 - attended the Growers' Conference in Missouri
Week 2 - released information about the Bear Butte Gardens CSAs for 2012
Week 3 - took inventory of the seeds I already had on hand and made a list of the seeds I wished to purchase and plant and received my first check for a CSA!
Week 4 - started fine tuning the "planting plan" and working on this year's farmer's market plans
Week 5 - seeded the first 1000 seed onions into the first round of soil blocks and placed them under grow lights in the house and became licensed to accept SNAP/EBT cards for selling produce
Week 6 - first seedlings began to successfully emerge under grow lights, seeded first seeds into containers in the new greenhouse
Week 7 - placed orders for the seeds I still needed for the spring and summer plantings ( a LOT!) and started the second batch of seeds in containers in the greenhouse
Week 8 - moved onion seedlings in soil blocks to the greenhouse and finished detailed planting plan

So now I'm at a point between initially getting things started and patiently waiting for my seed orders so I can gradually get the rest of the produce started.  There are a lot of variables to keep in mind when creating a planting plan for the amount of produce I wish to harvest this growing season.  There are the uncontrollable variables:  non-viable seed and weather.  I'm trying to minimize the effects of the uncontrollable variables by having multiple back-up plans such as lots of extra seed on hand for quick re-seeding of non-germinating seed and a small greenhouse now plus hopefully a larger high tunnel within a couple months to help compensate for the ever-present "wacky South Dakota weather" variable.

And then there are the controllable variables which tend to create the most headaches for me:

• What kind of tomatoes should I grow this year?  
• How many leaves of chard will I put in a weekly CSA box?  
• Do I really need to grow turnips even if I don't like them?  
• Is it better to have garden rows running north-south or east-west?  These are the kinds of things that drive me crazy!

There are some things that are thankfully just decided and I don't need to debate them anymore:

• Sell produce through CSAs or farmer's market?  Both!
• Organic or non-organic seed?  Organic!  
• Soil blocks or seed trays?  Soil blocks!  
• A variety of produce or just the basics?  A variety!  For anyone who knows me, this shouldn't be surprising.  
• Heirlooms or hybrids?  As many heirlooms as I can possibly find in organic seed, but I'll compromise for a really good, time-proven organic hybrid and be happy with that.

At this point this blog is going to switch from "I" to "we" as I'm going to start discussing farm implements and they are definitely my husband's area of knowledge, not mine.  

There are several implement additions that we need to add to our arsenal over the next several years as budget allows.  Part of this year's Planting Plan depends on the implements we can purchase.  Currently we have a good tractor with a bucket, a platform mower, an old disc, a blade, an old plow, and a walk-behind rear-tine tiller.  Items on the "to buy" list are a tiller for the tractor, mixer for mixing soil for seed starting, deeper plow, water wheel transplanter, cultivator, precision seeder, etc.

We also need to work into this year's plan purchasing more bee supers and the additional bees to go in them, putting up a high tunnel greenhouse, putting rain gutters on the present greenhouse and setting up a system of containers for gathering the rain, tearing down and building new fences, planting one shelter belt this year and plowing for another one to be planted next year, building a new chicken coop and some chicken tractors.  

So, in reading back through this blog, what I'm happy about is that I know I'm going to be busy for a while!  If any of these tasks sound appealing or you'd just like to discuss what we've learned along the way, just drop us an e-mail.  We're always glad to have some help or just compare methods with a fellow gardener.  

Michelle Grosek
Sturgis, SD

www.BearButteGardens.com

e-mail:  Michelle@BearButteGardens.com

Heirloom vs. Hybrid vs. Organic

I've been mulling this blog over in my mind for a few weeks now, doing a little research, trying to figure out the best way to make it informational, even though I'm still learning through trial and tribulation on all three of these subjects:  heirloom, hybrid, organic.  I guess I'll just lay out what I know and later on add info as I get it.

What I've come to realize is that there's a lot of information out there, some of it better than other.  Some people are extremely well-versed, some of us know a little, and a lot of people are pretty happy not having any knowledge of the differences between heirloom, hybrid, and organic.

For the purposes of this blog I'm going to assume the reader knows a little bit about each subject which is where I was at the beginning of the summer.  I have a history of working a couple seasons at a small locally-owned greenhouse business as well as going through the state training to become a Master Gardener about 6 or 7 years ago.  In both instances I had the opportunity to learn hands-on about hybrids vs. heirlooms and delve a little into the biology of the two.  In neither case did I have much exposure to "organic".  In South Dakota I think we can easily label our gardening methods many ways like hobby garden, truck garden, traditional garden, xeriscape garden, high production garden, etc., etc.  One method label I would hesitate to attach to most gardening in this rural agricultural area is "organic".

So let's just dive in and define and differentiate the topics:


Heirloom Tomatoes


Heirloom - an open-pollinated plant (bees, insects, wind) which maintains the qualities of its ancestor plant and when you keep a seed from an heirloom and plant it, you'll more than likely get another plant next year just like the one you had this year.  Of course now I have to throw in a disclaimer----if the helpful bees carried pollen from one lovely unique heirloom (let's say tomato) growing side by side with another lovely unique heirloom (tomato).....you may get a cross of those two heirloom tomatoes next year.  There are actually a few different interpretations of the term "heirloom", but all agree that "open pollination" is an absolute must and most agree that a lengthy time period, say 50 to 100 years, is necessary to consider a cultivar to be a true heirloom.

Hybrid Tomatoes

That leads me now to "hybrid".  To create a hybrid, two perfect specimens of a plant are chosen....a male with one kind of assets (let's say nice bulging.....form) and a female with another kind of asset,  let's say smooth skin.  Once the plants have been selected, the pollen-bearing anthers of the female plants are removed so that only pollen from the selected male plants can pollinate the female plant. The pollen is then manually transferred to the female plant and then the resultant cultivar provides this highly sought after round formed, smooth skinned tomato.  So now, in your garden, you determine that this round, smooth tomato is really wonderful and you want to grow the same one next year, so you keep some seeds out of one of the best tomatoes, dry them carefully, and plant them next spring to get another year of really fantastic round, smooth tomatoes, right?  Probably not.  Your tomatoes next year are probably going to be something totally different because you allowed your garden tomatoes to open pollinate and did not follow the same painstaking process the original growers utilized.  There's no telling what your new tomatoes will look like or taste like and the only way you will get that same exact perfect hybrid tomato is by going back and buying hybrid seed (or plants grown from that seed) from the company.  This is great for the plant breeders and the seed companies because they have a dedicated clientele year after year, coming back to buy that seed or the plants grown from the seed which is only produced by the plant breeder.

Seed Packets

 Chances are, you buy your seed every year anyway, whether it's heirloom or hybrid, so this may or may not be a big deal to you.  When it may become a big deal is if you decide you want to step up the number of plants you grow of a specific cultivar and you don't necessarily want to invest in all of that seed if you can dry it yourself from your own produce.  You can produce your own seed if you've been growing heirlooms, but not if you've been growing hybrids.

While we're talking about hybrids and heirlooms, let's delve into other reasons why hybrids have become so popular over the past several decades and these are my favorites.  We can narrow it down to a couple main obvious reasons:  better modes of and faster transportation (great interstate highways and refrigerated tractor trailers) and fast food restaurants.  This is a topic which is well-detailed in many books worth reading, so I'll just cover the high points here.  The popularity of fast food restaurants created a need for the cheapest food possible to be shipped as quickly as possible.  When you're talking about fruits and vegetables that are being sliced and diced and thrown onto burgers or salads, the focus is no longer on eye-pleasing shapes and colors and full flavors, but instead on how many can fit into a box while still green, be shipped across the country in a truck, and then hold a walk-in cooler shelf life as long as possible?  Or in the case of your local grocery store......same steps 1 and 2, but then hold a produce aisle shelf life as long as possible.

So now let's jump to topic #3 and contemplate "organic".  And I have to let you know right up front, this one is a touchy spot for me and here is the reason......a food does not have to be conscientiously grown to be labeled "organic".  Nor does it have to be a great cultivar to be labeled "organic".  Any hybrid or "picked green, cross country shipped, stored on the shelf" fruit or vegetable can be labeled organic as long as the water is right, the soil is right, and the fertilizer is right.  I'm over simplifying a bit here, but really, just having something labeled "organic" is not an assurance that you're doing the best you can for your body or your family.  I'm always a little baffled at my friends who order their produce which is shipped on a truck from Oregon or California so they can have "organic".

Here is what I know about organic and I'm going through a learning curve right now, so bear with me.  I may need to amend some of these thoughts as I learn more.

A plant or seed can be an heirloom OR a hybrid and still be organic as evidenced in the many, many seed catalogs.  A plant or seed can NOT be genetically modified and still be organic......this is a good thing that appears to be a firm truth at this time.

When growing something organic you have to take into account many things:

• What has been sprayed on your growing soil in the past and how long ago?
• Have the animals producing the manure/fertilizer been given any antibiotics or growth hormones?
• Have any synthetic fertilizers or other additives been put into the water used for the plants?
• Have any synthetic treatments been applied to the wood or the framing involved in the structures where the plants are grown?
• Do you utilize any synthetic pesticides or herbicides in the areas of or surrounding your gardens and how close?

So normally I truly do somewhat dismiss the "organic" label on something I'm going to eat and I pay more attention to how locally it was produced and by whom.  In the workings of my mind, I would rather know that something was conscientiously grown locally and support THAT practice rather than demand that something be true "organic" and then support the oil industry so that I can have that organic, shelf-ripened piece of produce shipped to my door.

But, in the interest of providing all things to all people (:-) I believe I will delve into the organic world and see what I can do locally.  My husband and I have an opportunity that a lot of people don't have.....we have the necessary space to experiment with crops, animals, irrigation, greenhouses, and all of that.  I believe I have the necessary knowledge and willingness to learn through process to give it a fair shot.  We have a lot of interested friends and family who are willing to help us along, even if that just means tasting the tomatoes when they're ripe (straight from the vine)!  But most of all, I truly do want what is the best and the healthiest for my friends and family, so obviously utilizing organic methods to do my gardening is just a logical practice and I look forward to incorporating those methods for everyone's well-being.

Michelle Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Michelle@BearButteGardens.com
http://www.bearbuttegardens.com/