Not sure how to get around the problem of organic farming not producing enough food to feed 6 billion people, but we have to figure out something, because we can't keep feeding ourselves chemicals all the time.
Although there's no unrefutable data yet, a whole lot of science folk and medical folk blame the chemicals we've been eating so much of in the last 30 years (that we put into the ground, that we spray onto crops, that we add during processing) for alarming increases in breast cancer, diabetes, asthma, IBS, etc. etc.
G'day Luce.
Herbicides and pesticides were introduced to the world with the green revolution 60 years ago. Also, just before then was chemical fertilizer. The stuff back then was far nastier. Stuff like DDT, dieldren, 10 80, even agent orange was a herbicide back then. All this stuff has since been banned. Todays chemical use may be higher, but this is mainly just roundup, which has been a great boon for the environment.
All this chemical was why crop yields took off. It took one thousand years for average wheat yields in England to rise from .5 to 2 tonnes per hectare. It then took just 50 years to rise from 2 to 8 tonnes per hectare.
Burnt toast causes cancer don't it? Red meat? Beer? Seriously, if agricultural chemicals were that bad, I think it would be shown by now. There must be a million greeny scientists all trying to prove how bad they are to elliminate the scourge, and they have no proof yet.
Average life spans are still increasing. Cancer is too, because we are living longer.
If people really want to reduce chemicals, then GM crops are the answer. Canadian canola growers grow GM crops that are bug free and can be sprayed with roundup. This roundup spray eliminates 3 other chemical applications and the crop needs no insecticide. The really crazy thing, that annoys Aussie farmers is that the Canadians get exactly the same per tonne for their grain. This tells me that the consumer has spoken, the consumer doesn't care.
Australia is currently importing Canadian canola due to the drought.
Even more remarkable, Australia generally exports 350 000 tonnes of canola to Japan. But, Japanese delegates were here recently trying to convice Australia to remain GM free, even though the Japanese import much more Canadian GM canola than Aussie canola. No one cares.
http://www.producersforum.net.au/n_calendar.htm
........"Japan is Australia's biggest export market and Japan imports GM canola. Japan is the largest importer of canola in the world. Over 85% of canola imported into Japan comes from Canada and is considered to be totally GM.
Australian and Canadian canola receives the same price in Japan. There are no price premiums for Australian canola see the chart below. If GM canola was not accepted it would trade at a discount to conventional canola, in everyday terms "you couldn't give it away." But research studies have shown conventional and GM canola trade at the same price".......
See ya's.
