For weeks supporters of Big Ag have been criticizing the new documentary "Food, Inc." for being anti-farmer.On the contrary, no one is against farmers. Everyone -- unless they grow all their food themselves -- depends on farmers.
But different types of farmers exist: those engaged in "conventional" agriculture, those in organic agriculture and those in animal "agriculture."
The latter I consider to be a misnomer. "Agriculture" means "cultivation of land." People who raise animals and then have them slaughtered are not working the land. In many cases nowadays animals don't even see the land until they are transported to slaughterhouses. Instead thousands of them are crammed together in buildings on factory "farms."
"Conventional" agriculture -- which includes the use of chemicals in pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fertilizer -- is so named because it's the norm. Oddly organic agriculture, which existed for thousands of years, is unconventional, unusual nowadays.
Organic farmers are the ones I have the most respect for. They realize that "progress" and technology aren't always beneficial. They value the soil, the Earth and their consumers.
"Conventional" farmers, like those who bash "Food, Inc.," talk about "feeding the world." But how many people are they killing with their use of chemicals?
Ironically they also criticize other farmers by calling organic agriculture "elitist."
I depend on farmers for my food. While I do eat some conventionally farmed produce, if I were given a choice, I'd purchase all organic foods. I prefer to give my respect -- and my money -- to organic farmers.
(Image courtesy of Treehugger.com.)
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Statistics from the United Nation, published in “Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies,” May 1994, estimated that worldwide we have only about 42 to 84 years’ worth of topsoil remaining.(Meaning after that, the human race is finished—done!)
It’s funny with all the science, math and gadgetry at our disposal in the 21st century that Big Ag can’t get it through their big heads that United States croplands are losing topsoil about 18 times faster than the soil formation rate. There’s no technology that can reproduce soil fertility.
What really needs to catch on is sustainable farming. Even organic farming depletes the soil 17 to 70 times faster than nature builds it back. It is done without nasty pesticides, which I’m glad not to put in my body, but these farms are obtaining (thus depleting) organic matter from outside sources—not building the soil back up in a closed-system such as the one taught at Ecology Action in Willits, California where I interned for three months.
If this is a subject that interests anyone, which I hope it does! check out the chapter in Richard Heinberg’s book “Peak Everything” titled “50 Million Farmers.” (Less than 1% of the U.S. population farms—scary!) And John Jeavons’ “The Sustainable Vegetable Garden” (for beginners). His bestseller, “How to Grow More Vegetables” is a classic published in 7 languages and Braille, though it's more technical. I read it last summer knowing nothing about gardening and having never put a single plant into the ground in my life. The preface is riveting and there are plenty of sketches and diagrams to illustrate the methods. This information changed my life.
I urge everyone to try growing even one thing. Buy a $15 Topsy Turvy and put a tomato plant out on your balcony or hang it from your roof. I’m in a rental so I’m doing container gardening. I have six Earth Boxes, which get watered through tubes and are impossible to over or underwater as long as you keep the tube filled. I haven’t had to buy any lettuce this summer. I just step out, pull several of the outer leaves off and let them grow back more. Super convenient!
Thanks for your comment, Nikki. You know way more about farming/gardening than I do.
Readers, check out Nikki's blog here: http://generationv.blogspot.com/
Nikki wrote correctly, "Less than 1% of the U.S. population farms..."
To give depth to that statistic, in the book Animal Rights/Human Rights, David Nibert says, "The development of ‘scientific’ (read: 'corporate-friendly') farm practices and the growth of giant agribusinesses these practices facilitated reduced the number of farms in the United States from 7 million in 1930 to 1.9 million in 1994. Of the 1.9 million farms remaining by 1994, only 6 percent - 125,000 - produced the bulk of U.S. food. Seen another way, in 1900, 50 percent of all Americans lived and worked on a farm. A century later, it's less than 1 percent." Those are staggering facts.
“But different types of farmers exist: those engaged in ‘conventional’ agriculture, those in organic agriculture and those in animal ‘agriculture.’”
Let’s not forget veganic gardening/farming, too! Allow me to give a shout out to veganic gardening, because so few people do (many vegans still have not heard of this practice). Veganic farming (and gardening) is organic and vegan: it follows the environmentally friendly practices of organic farming (no pesticides, etc.), but also employs techniques that reduce the use of animals or animal-derived products that occur in organic farming. Organic farms are complicit in the support of factory farms. Most organic farms use fertilizer made from the excrement or by-products of animals derived directly from factory farms (think chicken manure, blood meal, bone meal, fish meal/emulsion, etc.).
Even the closed-system organic farms that do not use fertilizer in which the contents come from factory farm animals, instead use the excrement from the enslaved animals (cows and poultry) raised on their own farm (these animals are almost always raised as food, most of the time for profit and occasionally for the farmers’ own dinner plates).
Veganic gardeners and farmers are the pioneers in a new movement to grow the most cruelty-free produce (and the healthiest as well, since antibiotics, hormones, and other toxic chemicals have been known to find their way from the factory farmed animals into your organic vegetables via fertilizer - http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/antibiotics-in-crops). There are simple alternatives that farmers (and you!) can use in place of animal-derived fertilizers: http://www.gentleworld.org/VEGAN/veganic-gardening.htm.
I also champion the idea of starting to grow one’s own food, particularly veganically (and even if it’s just one plant to start with). There are some veganic farms available in the United States (http://www.goveganic.net/spip.php?rubrique4), but chances are there isn’t one near you. But that doesn’t mean that we can start a revolution in our own backyards. And the more we get the word out, hopefully the more veganic farms will start cropping up around the country.
-Jeannie
Here are a few links for anyone interested in veganic gardening/farming:
What is veganic farming:
http://www.goveganic.net/spip.php?article19
Veganic Agriculture Network (in US)
http://www.goveganic.net/
Vegan Organic Network (in UK)
http://www.veganorganic.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Growing Green: A book on animal-free organic techniques:
http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Green-Animal-Free-Organic-Techniques/dp/1933392495/ref=sr_1_1?
Veganic Organic Growing, The Basics (a guide on how to grow your own veganic garden!)
http://www.veganorganic.net/images/sheet4.pdf
What can you do to further the veganic movement?
http://www.goveganic.net/spip.php?arti
more info:
http://www.vegansociety.com/people/lifestyle/home_and_garden/veganic_gardening.php
Jeannie, thank you for all that information!
Jeannie: Thanks for all the great information and site addresses. It’s important to remember that the further removed we are from our food source the less control we have over the practices used in producing it.
I want to mention that Ecology Action (“How to Grow More Vegetables”) only uses composts from material they grow themselves and have found they get more yields from compost made of plant materials than manures. Meat isn’t even allowed on their site.
http://www.growbiointensive.org/
Tracy, thank YOU for allowing me to give veganic gardening/farming a shout out on your awesome blog, and letting me post such a long blurb about it! I hope some people may find the information helpful.
Nikki, that's awesome that Ecology Action makes and uses their own animal-free compost/green manure! I have begun to make and use my own compost this year, and it is a great feeling to know that I am giving back to nature part of what I have taken from it!
-Jeannie
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
http://howtomakecompost.info
Margaret,
Thanks very much for your comment! I really appreciate it.
Tracy
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