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TechnoratiOrganic Farming, Promise in the Face of Global Warming
As global temperatures increase and carbon dioxide levels rise, crop yields will rise correspondingly, or so many farmers would like to think. Perhaps, in Northern Canada and Russia, for a time, but eventually heat and drought will shrivel crops even in the northern latitudes..
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) recent study on global climate change, plants will grow larger with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, but they will also need more water. Yet, fresh water resources are becoming more scarce.
While higher carbon dioxide levels can increase overall plant growth, the grain, or seed portion of the plant, will have less time to to adequately develop due to rising temperatures. Thus high temperatures will also decrease the plants ability to reproduce.
While some food crops may benefit from the changing climate, weeds will benefit more. More weeds mean more competition with food crops, so to compensate, farmers will increase their use of costly herbicides. Climate change will defeat that strategy as well. The most widely used herbicide in the US, Roundup, begins to loose its efficacy as carbon dioxide levels rise.
Insects and crop diseases thrive under warmer conditions. With less winter freezing to control them, they will move northward.
For livestock farmers, increased temperatures will cause increased heat stress on livestock. Graizers will see lowered forage quality and protein content requiring more land to feed increasingly heat and insect stressed animals.
Particularly troubling are the more frequently occurring global climate "surprises". My farm has experienced two "100 year" rains in less than a year. Europe had record heat waves in 2003 and 2007, record cold waves in 2006 and 2009. Australia suffers under prolonged drought and devastating wildfires, while more unpredictable late season frosts threaten fruit, vegetable and winter grain crops in the US.
Still, the most devastating effects of climate change will be seen in the developing world. As temperatures rise, the tropic and subtropic regions of the world will see the most drastic temperature increases. As the worlds glaciers and ice caps continue to melt rising sea levels will inundate many low lying and densely populated agricultural countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Egypt.
The January 9, 2009 issue of Science stated that "the hottest seasons on record will represent the future norm in many locations." I remember my fathers stories of the hot, dry summers of the Dust Bowl 1930's. While human activity certainly put the dust in the Dust Bowl, we are now seeing actual changes to physical systems such as glaciers, permafrost and oceans.
NASA scientist James Hanson tells us we must seriously consider the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. He warns that if we wish to maintain a planet somewhat similar to the one we now inhabit, 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide is the highest level we can maintain. Considering that current levels are around 390 ppm and growing, we could be in trouble.
If we think agriculture will thrive in a warming world we are deluding ourselves. In addition to cutting industrial and transportation emissions, there are models of sustainable farming systems that can reduce carbon emissions. A long term study by the Rodale Institute showed organic farming methods were capable of sequestering nearly 30% more carbon in the soil than conventional farming methods.
Sustainable agriculture keeps more carbon in the soil and it focuses on food crops, not environmentally damaging commodity crops. Equally important, as shown by last years report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, sustainable agriculture offers developing countries a wide range of economic, environmental, social and cultural benefits.
If we are going to get serious about reducing carbon emissions to the 350 ppm level and if we are going to give the developing world a chance to feed itself, organic and sustainable agriculture need to become the norm, not the exception.
12 Comments so far
Show AllHelp me out here, folks, please! I just heard about HR 875 and Senate Bill 814 which allegedly will drive small sustainable ag to extinction. Has anyone already researched this? My local farmer friends tell me Monsanto is going to rule. And I'm scrambling to meet the spring as a brand new small farmer, so can't dig deep into the legislation as I'm learning to dig (or not - no-till looks good to me!) in the soil. Hope someone else already knows - IS this legislation a worry or not? Thanks!
Organic Farming existed before the Age Of Oil. All we have to do is switch to petroleum free substitutes and yes, they do exist, and we'll be just fine.
Many excellent ideas I have read.
For those of you who live in arid regions, but near the sea, or other source of brackish water, go to http://seawatergreenhouse.com
"While some food crops may benefit from the changing climate, weeds will benefit more. More weeds mean more competition with food crops, so to compensate, farmers will increase their use of costly herbicides."
Here is a weed that will benefit from global warming while fighting against it, that gives more nutritious seeds, plus cloth, paper, building materials and other products than any other, that needs no herbicides or other chemicals, that can rescue farmers from the Bush disaster, that saves forests and is a medicine as well as a creative tool. It is cannabis hemp. The weed grown by Thomas Jefferson and which George Washington urged us to grow.
It's legalization will not only benefit us all economically by what it produces, but by saving us billions in persecuting, prosecuting and imprisoning harmless pot users, by preventing bloody cartel turf wars in Mexico and other places and by preventing corruption and the need for more jails, cops and lawyers.
Now more than ever "Pot will get us through times of no money better than money will get us through times of no pot".
The Furry Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton
To Nedlud:
Your comment is so very important. People are so far removed from what it is to be a producer. Few people know what it takes to make something work no matter how hot or cold or dark or bright or wet or dry the working conditions; you have to make it work, be it a pump, an engine, a heater, a wheelbarrow, a road; or keep an animal healthy, or keep the pests off of your crop that you spent so much time, energy and money on establishing... I grew 3-1/2 acres (wall to wall) of organic produce for 9 years so I have had experience with this lack of appreciation for what it takes to overcome the daily impediments to production; and I have had to deal with those who think they are doing you some kind of favor by buying the fruits of your labor. It all comes down to education: not education that says that "everything that isn't produced 'organically' is poison!" Education must be about where everything in our lives actually comes from. When people are educated in this regard, they can then make decisions about whether or not to care, and then back up those decisions (or not) with action. Until people have had this most basic education, they are subject to what is nothing more than propaganda which has been aimed directly at their emotional receptors. And that propaganda comes from ALL SIDES. As George W. Bush taught (inadvertently) so well, "either you are with us or you're against us" is no way for humanity to evolve.
I hope, Nedlud, that you can work out a price that results in a living wage for the work that you do. Thanks for keeping on.
Andy Radin
Thank you, Andy Radin.
We can have corporate (what we have now) or we can have community (what we once had).
Corporate exists to steal. Community exists to share.
nedlud
There was a couple here in BC that decided to eat nothing for one year that came from more than 100 miles away from their home.
They did it.
It was difficult, but definitly doable.
It is time to go back to cities having the surrounding areas support them.
If that means unfarmable areas like, oh say, Las Vegas have to be abandoned. Well, that's the price you pay. I know that may sound blase or cynical, but it's realistic.
It wasn't really that long ago every home, no matter how poor or rich had a kitchen garden. During WWII they called them 'Victory Gardens'. Don't you think it's time to learn something from the past?
No doubt there will be those who will chime in and say it can't be done, we can't sustain that many gardens, it would be too hard, would take to much effort away from playing Nintendo, or watching the latest 'reality' show.
bullshit
Yes. It will take time out of your busy day.
MAKE TIME.
Our ancestors didn't do such things because they wanted to. They did these things because they NEEDED too. If they didn't work, they didn't eat. And the modern socail safety nets did not exist, and many of the truely poor would have been greatly offended if you offered them such handouts.
Don't get me wrong. These are useful programs that DO help people.
But like so much of our modern world and it's technologies and systems, they are a crutch that ENCOURAGES people to be lazy.
There, I said it. The poeple of today are LAZY.
Yes, they may be very busy with their lives, going to workouts, shopping, driving, and whatever other commercial activity fills their emotionally empty lives.
But they are still lazy. Relying on technology to make their little free time so much easier.
I know what it's like to turn a patch of hard ground into a productive garden. By hand. It was bloody hard, back breaking effort in wind, rain and heat. The endless weeding and caring for the plants, keeping the rabbits and deer out of my garden.
And I LOVED every single backbreaking, exhausting minute of it!
I can't wait to do it again this spring.
Walk in peace.
Ethical, sustainable use of biochar along with permaculture and rainwater catchment could be done in neighborhoods and farms everywhere. Me must find our allies withing the natural world and work with them.
One of the best things we can do collectivly is to turn under the expanses of wasteful green lawn and change them into personal garden plots using squarefoot gardening and double dug deep bed planting. You can feed a rather large family this way with a moderate amount of effort. The results taste better than anything you buy in a store! If you rent, ask your landlord if you can turn a 10x10 area into a small productive garden.
If you live in an apartment or condo, ask about communitee gardens in your area. Use planter boxes or old ice cream buckets on your balcony or patio. Sprouts can be grown indoor year-round, and are damn good eating.
If there isn't a community garden in your area, start one. Start guerilla gardening, growing your food in out of the way places on public land. If there is an abandoned lot, clean it up, start your garden there.
Get the kids involved. Yes, they will probably complain about the weeding, but it is relaxing, it gets them out in the fresh air, and just maybe they will learn something.
Petition your local schools to start a school garden, and ask that gardening classes be made mandatory. Even in inner city areas. ESPECIALLY inner city areas.
Expand you palate. Research what the indiginous people in your area ate.
Compost your waste. Even if you can't use it, I bet you can find a gardener who can.
Eat less meat.
Eat local (look at 'The 100 Mile Diet'). Buy local. Do without imported luxuries (do you really NEED fresh avocados in the middle of December?).
And finally, demand your politicians investigate Monsanto and their ilk. It's time to break the argicorps hold on our future.
Walk in peace.
The growing challenges posed by our crumbling economy, screams out for Americans to take many aspects of our future into our own hands. Creating food security is at the top of this list.
It is time to create a 21st century version the Victory Garden of the 1940's. To this end please make a plan to start a vegetable garden this year as soon as weather permit. You can add your garden to the One Million Garden campaign at:
http://onemilliongardens.ning.com
Let's Get Growing!!!
If Obama ever decides to enact meaningful financial industry regulation, his next step needs to be regulating the petro-chemical industry. As long as they continue to call the shots, petrochemical-based farming will continue to grow.
It would be good to see some more detail here on storing carbon in the soil in organic farming. (Hey, why do you thank they call it "organic.") Rodale has research on that. What about that study of an Omish farm and the neighbor?
I found this recently: “Small-scale Sustainable Farmers are Cooling Down the Earth”
http://www dot grassrootsonline.org/publications/fact-sheets-reports/small-scale-sustainable-farmers-are-cooling-down-earth