Why does this trigger so many people? I get that large scale producers are probably overusing broad spectrum insecticides like pyrethrin, but small and medium sized growers for the most part are dedicated to protecting the environment and using non-toxic methods to control pests.
For example, they use crop rotation, non-toxic insecticidal soaps, bacterial agents to target specific pests (BTK), encouraging predator insects and animals, netting, and manual removal to name a few techniques that work.
Emphasis is also placed on building soil fertility with organic matter rather than using the infertile soil as simply an anchor for roots to receive petroleum based chemicals.
Who can honestly say they prefer vegetables saturated in toxic insecticides, herbicides and petroleum based fertilizers?
Camden Howard
Because it's a lot of time and money spent to regress to really inefficient and retarded methods of farming for the fact of "Buh muh pesticides maaan!" when organic food by far has a higher rate of carcinogens on average.
Parker Nelson
Holy shit I just use dirt, water, seeds, powdered snuff as insecticide and cages.
Logan Green
>organic food by far has a higher rate of carcinogens on average
Growing vegetables with fertile soil, clean air and clean water as reputable small and medium organic farmers do, produces more carcinogens than using industrial herbicides, pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers? C'mon, that's just silly and you know it.
Lucas Powell
>inefficient and retarded methods of farming
Oh, you mean the method of farming used since agriculture started until the ascendancy of big chemical after WWII? Pretty damned effecient until big agri-chemical convinced people it wasn't.
Jacob Diaz
In reality there are two types of organic farmers. The first are the large scale farms that use traditional farming techniques but are following the regulations to get that organic sticker on their produce. Then they mark up their shitty fruit and hipsters will be none the wiser because it says organic on it. The second type of organic farmer is the guy who actually cares about the health of the land he grows on and takes care of his soil. Most people who sell at farmers markets are the second type of farmer, hell most of them don't want to jump through the hoops that the government has put in place to get the organic cert.
Ryan Bennett
The ascendancy of chemical fertilizers parallel the adoption and widespread use of mechanized farming so it's hard to separate them, but pre-1940s corn yields were something like 20% of modern corn yields. Since 1950 cereal yields have tripled while farmed acreage has been reduced by nearly half. So yes, organic farming is remarkably inefficient compared to non-organic farming.
Cameron Peterson
Fun fact: organic legume farners can compete with traditional legume farmers
Lincoln Bailey
Organic is far more labor intensive for less product, but when you're paying a bunch of immigrants as little as possible it's hard to justify that big a markup.
Ryan Mitchell
I'm noting that it only applies for plants in the Fabaceae family, because they can fixate their own nitrogen they can be grown at a similar rate as traditional methods
Joshua Hughes
True, but not every organic farmer uses migrant labor, some organic farmers will use actual harvest machinery and then do the mark up anyway because people are stupid enough to pay it
Jack White
No, it isn't. Just plant indoors with baked dirt and wa-la, no bugs eating your plants.
How is spraying glyphosate every other day less difficult?
Brayden Gutierrez
That's because outside a few examples, most legumes are grown for fodder, not human consumption. Also your figures are per harvest, not per year, as maximized legume harvest rates require crop rotation even with conventional farming.
James Sanders
If you're planting indoors why are you spraying insecticides in the first place?
Apples only reach ~85% yield rate for organic, peanuts get ~75%, and after that it starts dropping pretty fast.
Nathan Gray
>industrial herbicides, pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers
None of those things are necessarily less dangerous than the green, organic poisons produced by nature. Synthetic neonicotinoids are safer to use as a pesticide than tobacco-derived nicotine. Neither are allowed in organic farming, but rotenone IS, and rotenone is linked to neural degeneration disorders in humans.
People are triggered by 'organic' because it's a buzzword subject to abuses, that triples the cost of produce without providing a concrete benefit.
Isaiah Martin
>Who can honestly say they prefer vegetables saturated in toxic insecticides, herbicides and petroleum based fertilizers? Me. They taste fine, so I don't care.
Adam Green
>it's natural so that means it's good for you Organic crops by average have more natural poisons than normal crops have produced poisons (produced poisons engineered to be as harmless as possible to humans).
Yeah and blackpowder was just fine until Big Ammo convinced people that smokeless gunpowder was better.
You know we once used to sacrifice people and animals to god(s) in the belief that it would make for better crops too, right? Doesn't mean it worked, old or traditional isn't better you shitchucking hippie faggot.
Julian Reyes
Yes, they don't like to use pesticides, so what they do is to handpick crops and plants that seem to resist or deter bugs and parasites from eating them, when the reason they do that is because they smell the poisons and avoid them.
This is an uncontrolled process and in general the outcome is actually more likely to cause cancer (however minor). You're paying more money for a less efficient product because it makes you feel smug and superior.
Henry Hall
>rotenone
Rotenone is no longer permitted for use in the US by organic growers. In fact it cannot be purchased in the US for agricultural purposes.
Pyrethrins are permitted, but they breakdown into inactive components rapidly with exposure to sunlight. And small and medium sized growers do not use broad spectrum insecticides because it defeats their other control methods. People have become so brainwashed by big chemical that they cannot conceptualize growing without pesticides which is simply absurd given the history of agriculture.
Blake Scott
Or, you know, pesticides makes it easy.
Nathaniel Barnes
>Yes, they don't like to use pesticides, so what they do is to handpick crops and plants that seem to resist or deter bugs and parasites from eating them, when the reason they do that is because they smell the poisons and avoid them.
False. They use other control methods some of which I mentioned in my OP. Name a vegetable (not flower) that has poisons in it that repel bugs.
Wyatt Martinez
Not so much repel as kill them.
Ayden Murphy
Small and medium sized organic farmers did not get into the business because it was "easy." They believe reducing the negative impact on the environment and growing sustainably by rebuilding soil fertility is more important than reducing the effort they expend.
It's obvious why it's more expensive for organic produce too. More labor expended and because leaving areas fallow or planted with cover crops like clover and vetch to rebuild fertility cost money that isn't returned immediately.
Parker Lewis
Name one vegetable that kills bugs, please.
David White
>It's obvious why it's more expensive for organic produce too There you go, chemicals save you time and money, there's your answer, that's why people use it!
Aaron Cox
Because it's expensive? Only rich people have the luxury of caring about this stuff.
Austin Powell
>Heeeey this thing is gonna totally save the environment, buuut please give us lots of money for it ;^) Gee, wonder why it bothers people.
Noah James
>Organic crops by average have more natural poisons than normal crops have produced poisons (produced poisons engineered to be as harmless as possible to humans).
False as pointed out in numerous other posts itt.
>smokeless gunpowder was better
How apropos you chose an analogy to a technology which dramatically increased the killing capabilities. Quite similar to the advantages inherent in the big agri-chemical toxins.
Gabriel James
Tomatoes produce the most niacin but that doesn't do shit to tater bugs.
Aaron Martinez
>muh killing Boohoo, sometimes killing is necessary.
Elijah Lopez
>Only rich people have the luxury of caring about this stuff
Horseshit. If you buy in season produce (which is what you should be doing, even conventional) through coops or farmers markets from organic farmers it's really not that much more costly. Cut out 3 or 4 cans of your favorite HFCS beverage a day or your trip to mcdicks and you've saved enough to pay for the extra cost right there.
Jose James
I'm a hunter too, numbnuts.
Logan Gomez
>Cut out 3 or 4 cans of your favorite HFCS beverage a day or your trip to mcdicks and you've saved enough to pay for the extra cost right there. Yeah, you don't at all sound like a smug cunt looking for something to prove or to make himself feel good.
Jordan King
There's more than animals to shoot.
Liam Hughes
It also doesn't do shit to hornworms, the major pest. The bacteria BTK takes care of them without harming the good guys or us.
Jack Lewis
>coops or farmers markets Oh, it's a big city thing. Don't have any of those around here
Gabriel Cooper
>There's more than animals to shoot.
Let me guess - hippie faggot, tree hugging, organic gardening, SJW antifa?
Joseph Barnes
Ironic isn't it? You live in a rural area but can't buy local fresh produce. Really gets the old butterchurn a plunging.
Aaron Bailey
I was thinking rapists, robbers, and general political thugs looking to have their way by means of violence, regardless of persuasion.
Thomas Campbell
Not everyone who lives outside of big cities lives in/near a farm you smarmy dipshit.
Hunter Martin
He's dead accurate.
Jaxon Ortiz
>do all these things because it's better for the environment! :^) Nigga, we've survived for so long because we do stuff that's better for our species, not because it's good for >le enbiromunt. By the time your "soil fertility" matters, we'll have already found a way to replace it all with something we've created.