Why Grow Organic?
To grow organic means planting non-gmo seeds in a healthy soil well supplemented with compost or manure so that very little or no spraying with insecticides/pesticides is needed.”
I was determined to find out how I could grow organic, that is grow delicious and healthier vegetables in my garden so that my family would enjoy eating lush nutritious vegetables, and I knew using synthetic fertilizers was not the way to accomplish this goal.
I have seen, first hand, how the new farming techniques of using synthetic fertilizers, a technique spearheaded by large companies, had changed the Agricultural Way of Growing Vegetables and, most importantly, how vegetables had been/were being forced to grow in very unhealthy environments.
Example 1: Mixed farming/crop rotation abandoned
Back in the 60’s, potato farmers in Prince Edward Island had been persuaded to do less mixed farming and grow more potatoes to satisfy consumer demand.
I remember it well! The leaders of this trend were trying to persuade the New Brunswick farmers to do the same.
These leaders were going from place to place, were targeting especially the farmers’ coops, and were telling farmers how it would be more profitable to plant huge fields of one crop and use more synthetic fertilizers which they claimed were just as good as compost . . . that in the end the cost of the fertilizer would be offset by selling more produce. After much discussion, the NB farmers decided to decline the offer and continue with mixed farming.
At the time, PEI farmers had been producing potatoes which had become renowned as being the best in the world, and they could boast of having many different varieties of delicious potatoes.
However, when the farmers began growing such huge crops of potatoes on a continuous basis, the soil could not keep up with supplying all the needed nutrients anymore . . . especially since the old method of replenishing the soil with compost and rotating crops had been abandoned.
Since the synthetic fertilizers could not replenish the soil with all necessary micronutrients and macronutrients as did the old fashion method of crop rotation supplemented with manure and compost, the growing crops of potatoes were not as healthy… not only did they not feel and taste the same anymore but also their “shelf life” was shorter.
Any potato farmer knows that potatoes which are less than really healthy are attacked more frequently by insects or potato blight, so to keep their crops from being destroyed, growers would probably have to spray more often with insecticide and pesticides.
What a vicious circle! A double whammy for the consumer. . . 1) vegetables lacking in nutrients and 2) insecticide/pesticide on our food and spreading in our water table. No wonder cancer and other disease is rampant!
Example 2: Excessive spraying
If potatoes were the only crop affected by this new farming technique,well maybe that could pass. However, last summer (2003) I saw something which makes me believe that more food than we think are being treated in the same way…
Let me explain. From early spring until October, every day I had to travel down a country road here in Ontario. At the beginning of the summer I noticed this huge field being planted, and as time passed, I soon recognized that these plants were head lettuce.
One day, however, when the plants were almost mature, I saw, to my horror, that a tractor pulling spraying equipment was going from row to row and was spraying a horrible smelling liquid I recognized as being the smell of insecticide.
Before that crop was completely pulled out, I had witnessed those plants being sprayed at least one more time. (I couldn’t help but wonder where in the lettuce that spray ended up!. . .)
Then later on during the summer, when half the field had no more of this first crop of lettuce, I noticed workers were replanting another cropon that same stretch of land.
Before the summer was over, this second crop of head lettuce had been treated with the same spraying routine.
Imagine! How can soil support two crops of the same type of vegetable in one summer without being replenished?
Because of the spraying, were there any microbes left in the soil to do their job of providing food for the plant roots? As a matter of fact, how could any living organism and/or precious worms which are so necessary to a healthy soil survive the sprayings? What kind of food were we being sold?
Example 3: Farmers forced to use chemical fertilizers
In the spring of 2004, one day around 9:30 a.m., my brother and I happened to be driving past a farm where the farmer was spreading chemical-based fertilizer.
Being a beautiful spring day, we had our car windows down. All of a sudden a strong gust of wind came breezing our way and brought with it a stark sharp smell which made us both choke and gasp. The smell of that fertilizer was 10 times worst than fresh manure which in all my years of experience has never made me choke up (gag maybe, but not choke)!
As we quickly closed the windows, I asked my brother, “Why on earth do farmers use such junk?”
He answered: “One of the farmers told me that composted cattle manure was hard to ‘come by’ because cattle farmers hang onto it. The vegetable farmers who do not own cattle have no choice but to buy this fertilizer!” He went on to explain that most farmers have very little money so cannot afford to buy compost by the ton, hence must resort to this chemical-based cheaper fertilizer. What a predicament for the farmer!
After watching “The Future of Our Food“ (a documentary which can be rented out), I can understand the farmer’s predicament. Not only are farmers forced to use synthetic fertilizers but they must now contend with genetically altered seeds.
As I was viewing the video, especially the part about how big companies plan to sell seeds which have been genetically altered to self destruct after one year of growth scared me! How will farmers be able to survive? How can seeds be saved for the following year’s crop?
As I kept viewing these videos and reading about the farmers’ dilemma, other thoughts popped into my head:
How much insecticide/pesticide residual are we swallowing as we eat our vegetables? ….. and who knows what else we are swallowing.
Why would cattle and even pigs and wild animals refuse to eat corn grown from genetically modified seeds? Why do some animals glow when they eat certain genetically modified foods?
To read the whole story and view the video explaining why the farmers are so extremely concerned and worried, read this blog post Genetically Modified Foods Vs Organic Foods, written when certain groups in the US wanted to outlaw organic farming.
Hidden Dangers in Kids’ Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods (1of3)
is another revealing video dealing with genetically modified foods. This video can be viewed along with two other videos about this subject on Google at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3015279868041217732#
Here’s one last proof that we must begin either buying or growing organically grown vegetables.
“The David Suzuki Foundation released a document, “The Food We Eat” — An International Comparison of Pesticide regulations, October 2006.
The Foundation made the claim that Canada’s pesticide regulations are among the weakest in the industrialized world. Sixty chemicals used in 1,130 pesticide products are banned in other western industrialized nations, they say.
However, Canada’s maximum residue limits on food are significantly lower than the US, the European Union, and Australia.
Canada reports a 10 percent residue on fresh fruit and vegetables, as compared to the US which reports 76 percent.”
~ CFA-Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Currents Events, “CFA Environment and Science Activities” (September 2007)
http://www.cfa-fca.ca/pages/index.php?main_id=335
It only makes sense for people to either buy organically grown vegetables or if at all possible, grow their own little garden and amend it with home made compost. Besides being more healthy for the family, to grow organic can even be fun!
Marcie
Why Is Compost BEST Soil Amendment
Who am I and Why Should You Believe Me?
Since 1982 I have been using a lost secret gardening method which is, without question the absolute best method for growing strong, healthy, fragrant flowers and lush, tasty, insect/disease-resistant vegetables possible. And to this day, I am still constantly amazed at the results.
Surprizingly this secret gardening method had totally escaped my attention when I helped my parents on the farm.
From the time I was small until I got out of college and got a job, I was expected to spend my summers helping my mother and my grandmother take care of huge gardens on a small farm nestled along the beautiful Bay Chaleur in New Brunswick.
At the time it was important for each family to grow huge crops of vegetables and to store such staples as carrots, potatoes, turnip in outside cellars (a hole as big as a room with a wooden peak above it) throughout the winter.
Also my mother would either freeze or make chili or pickles with such veggies as onions, yello/green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. So I got to be very intimitate with the taste and feel of very healthy, vibrant vegetables — even those kept in storage and eaten in the winter.
However, I had somehow missed the point of WHY the crops grown on the farm had been so abundant and tasty. As a matter of fact, it was a matter of pride to my grandmother that we have the nicest garden for miles around. Since it was not my job to prepare the soil, the concept of the soil needing to be replenished every year had just not registered.
I had failed to realize that home-made/green compost was their secret to growing nutritious and healthly vegetables and plants year after year. . .
In the 1970’s after I moved to “the big city”, I noticed that store-bought vegetables just did not taste as good or seem as healthy as those I had been eating on the farm.
I got fed up eating these tasteless vegetables from the so along with peach and pear trees and my favourite, tea roses, I put together a little garden in one corner of my backyard.
Somehow, though, my results were less than pleasing. As a matter of fact, I was disappointed!
I could not figure out why I had to use round thick plastic rings around the rose stem to keep them upright and straight. It frustrated me that they were always bending under the weight of the roses (which were not that big and abundant to start with), and the roses seem to have very little fragrance.
Since I had not clued in on the secret yet, I was using liquid fertilizers to feed my plants and vegetables. Although my home-grown veggies were somewhat tastier than the bought ones, they did not grow very big and they seemed to constantly be attacked by one insect or another.
Not knowing any better, I would try to get rid of these voracious insects/pests by using insecticide. I remember thinking: ” I don’t recall my parents using insecticide on their vegetables and I don’t remember ever seeing slugs in the garden, so why do I have to do so to save my plants?”
To make matters worse I knew that any insecticide or pesticides I would use would eventually end up in the water table and contaminate it.
I was remembering those documentaries I would show the students back in the 1970’s when teaching “Let’s Help Our Environment” issues.
The different scenes from one particular documentary kept flashing in my mind… pictures of how in New Brunswick the ecosystem was being severely threatened by seepage of sprayed insecticides and pesticides and the usage of brook or creek water to clean spraying equipment.
The fact that I was adding to the pollution of my own drinking water bothered me immensely… notwithstanding the fact that I, my family, and the neighbours were inhaling the fumes as I was spraying.
I had to find another way to deal with the insects. It was obvious that my plants were not healthy, and I had to find the solution!
I was not happy! I could not figure out why I was spending a fortune on liquid and granular fertilizers (which supposedly were just as good as manure and compost), but I was not getting the results I wanted. Was it the soil? the environment? What was lacking? WHERE WAS I GOING WRONG?
Finally A Solution!
I was not able to ask my parents for they were not around anymore. Then one day my Dutch neighbor, noticing my disappointment, explained this to me:
“The secret method of making and adding compost to your soil will help you put back into your soil the nutrients which have been used up by growing plants..
“You see, vegetables grown using this old-fashioned method which has more or less disappeared since the 80’s will have time to grow normally and absorb all the added nutrients from the soil.
“In turn, especially your vegetables will have absorbed a wider variety of the nutrients, will be healthier, thus will be able to ward off insects and disease more easily. Try it and see!”
And I did. My what a difference!
This ancient secret method of adding lots of home-made compost to the soil is such a superior method of gardening, I never looked back. From then on I used different methods of composting: hot composting, cold composting, green composting, crop rotation ….All of these methods made my back yard come alive! Not overnight, mind you. It took a few years to get the soil back in shape, but the effort was well worth it. (If you buy my ebook, you will see what I mean when you will see the pictures of my back yard)
Then I had to sell my property and move into an apartment. Even then I continued with composting, this time it’s vermicomposting . . . in my living room! The worm bin is behind my couch . . . out of sight. (You can see a picture of my home made very small “bin” in Section III of my ebook, How to Make Compost …Using the Worm Composting Method.)
Vermicompost does wonders for my houseplants and my little balcony garden in the summer (even though my apartment faces north, I get sun in the morning and later in the afternoon.)
I am so convinced that adding compost to the soil is such a superior method of gardening, EVERY VEGETABLE GROWER AND GARDENER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT.
That’s why I decided to compile all the composting information into one ebook so that anyone who wanted to gow lush plants and healthier vegetables could discover how easy it is to make their own compost which help the plant’s growing process in so many ways.
Besides eating healthy, delicious, nutrition filled vegetables which we know have not been sprayed with insecticide and pesticide, the nicest part about composting is that we are helping to keep our water and air cleaner so that our children as well as all aspects of the ecosystem will have a chance to stay healthier.
Thank you for being a part of this movement: turning to compost to feed our soil.