A Simple Fix for Farming

[True Earthling]

OCTOBER 19, 2012, 1:05 PM
By MARK BITTMAN
IT'S becoming clear that we can grow all the food we need, and profitably, with far fewer chemicals. And I'm not talking about imposing some utopian vision of small organic farms on the world. Conventional agriculture can shed much of its chemical use - if it wants to. This was hammered home once again in what may be the most important agricultural study this year, although it has been largely ignored by the media, two of the leading science journals and even one of the study's sponsors, the often hapless Department of Agriculture.

The study was done on land owned by Iowa State University called the Marsden Farm. On 22 acres of it, beginning in 2003, researchers set up three plots: one replicated the typical Midwestern cycle of planting corn one year and then soybeans the next, along with its routine mix of chemicals. On another, they planted a three-year cycle that included oats; the third plot added a four-year cycle and alfalfa. The longer rotations also integrated the raising of livestock, whose manure was used as fertilizer. The results were stunning: The longer rotations produced better yields of both corn and soy, reduced the need for nitrogen fertilizer and herbicides by up to 88 percent, reduced the amounts of toxins in groundwater 200-fold and didn't reduce profits by a single cent.

In short, there was only upside - and no downside at all - associated with the longer rotations. There was an increase in labor costs, but remember that profits were stable. So this is a matter of paying people for their knowledge and smart work instead of paying chemical companies for poisons. And it's a high-stakes game; according to the Environmental Protection Agency, about five billion pounds of pesticidesare used each year in the United States. No one expects Iowacorn and soybean farmers to turn this thing around tomorrow, but one might at least hope that the U.S.D.A.would trumpet the outcome. The agency declined to comment when I asked about it. One can guess that perhaps no one at the higher levels even knows about it, or that they're afraid to tell Monsantoabout agency-supported research that demonstrates a decreased need for chemicals.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/a-simple-fix-for-food/?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

[daleanime]

1. Important issue that will never be discussed during the election....

kind of like poverty.

[tabbycat31]

3. depends where you are

When there is a farmer running for Congress then its a different story

[daleanime]

4. Really? I'm sure that the farm bill comes up.....

but they actually get in to the nuts and bolts of improving american farming? Sweet.

[4th law of robotics]

2. Interesting

does the profit margin take in to account subsidies?

As I understand it (could be wrong) we subsidize corn and soy pretty heavily but not alfalfa or oats.

[dmosh42]

5. And corn is useless nutrution wise, but requires heavy fertilization in comparison to other vegetabl

[DeSwiss]

6. K&R n/t