April 22nd, 1970 was the day the Earth took center stage as twenty million souls took to the streets in defense of the natural world. The rally cry was for clean air, water and soil, a society that protected the wondrously biodiverse planet we call home. Forty-seven years later, the earth is a cleaner albeit hotter orb and organic farmers play a crucial role in protecting the planet’s future.
It is no small coincidence that in the years following that first Earth Day, organic agriculture took root in many a young agrarian mind. Farmers and would-be gardeners realized that the reliance on an ever increasing array of toxic inputs was endangering our health and our planet for many generations to come. Organic methods represented a different path, one that worked in harmony with nature and built up rather than tore down the natural order. Organic producers are the stewards of the earth with every compost pile, cover crop and fertile soil.
Some say agriculture may have been the original fall from grace: the day we picked up a tool and cut into the earth and planted a seed. We burned grasslands, felled trees and domesticated beasts for our bidding. Civilizations flourished, populations boomed, and our sophisticated means to conquer nature knew no bounds. Evolving technologies, pesticides, synthetic nitrates and the industrialization of agriculture ushered in the green revolution. It promised exponential yields to feed a growing population. The revolution came at great expense to human health and the environment. Organic farming offers the promise to restore and reverse these errant trends.
Organic producers protect human health with every crop.
With the rise of modern industrialized agriculture, few people are now untouched by pesticide exposure. Every day we are exposed through our food, water, air, and direct contact. This daily onslaught has been linked to cancers, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, hormone disruption, developmental disorders, sterility, memory loss, reduced visual ability and reduced motor skills. It’s no wonder that asthma, allergies and hypersensitivity are all on the rise.
Farm workers, rural communities, women and children all benefit when an organic farmer plants his seed. No dangerous chemicals drift onto playgrounds, schools and churches. The waters run pure with organic nutrients free from synthetic nitrates. The air is a little sweeter from the alyssum that hedges the organic field attracting honeybees and beneficial insects.
Consumers can rest assured their exposure to toxic inputs has been diminished. With each bite of organic strawberries, Gala apple or Crimson Seedless grape, parents can be confident there are no concentrates of toxic pesticides. Methyl bromide, diphenylamine, and chlorpyrifos are all absent from the organic fruit they serve forth. Celery, cherries, peaches and potatoes produced with sound organic practices are free of carcinogens, hormone disruptors and neurotoxins. They are a delight on the tongue and safe for our children.
Organic growers protect the environment and the entire ecological system on which food production depends. Pesticides can persist in the environment for decades, contaminating surrounding soils and water sources, causing loss of biodiversity and destroying beneficial insect populations that act as natural enemies of pests.
Organic producers work in harmony with nature protecting the biodiversity of our planet. There are no neonicotinoids collapsing bee colonies and other pollinators. Spraying Round-Up is forbidden and thus the natural flora flourishes, creating beneficial wildlife habitats. Fish, frogs, birds and butterflies all prosper in and around the organic farm.
Protecting our health and the environment are the themes we celebrate on Earth Day. An organic farmer lives and breathes them every day.
Agriculture has a significant place in protecting us from the calamity of climate change and egregious environmental degradation. Intrepid organic producers are taking us one step closer to a healthier world with each harvest.
Let’s celebrate organic producers this Earth Day!
I am so pleased with the article praising Organic. I know what Organic can do and wish that the Agriculture Advisers would start getting to the point of realizing that chemicals have to be stopped or humanity will end in a short time. The EPA was ordered by the Obama Administration to clean up the Chesapeake Bay by 2025. I can not figure any logic to the method presented to the public by them in 2008. The nitrogen is one of the biggest polluters I agree but the source is a scam and a lie. The area is bigger and the size of Rohde Island that the weeds are robbing the fish etc. from oxygen and dying. The graph presented by them 19% is the cattle in the creek drinking and their manure and urine. Chemical fertilizer was 17%. When I changed to organic Farming in 1950 cow manure was so low in NP that it was not cost effective to spread. I was not convinced and did three years of experimenting on my own and learned that the USDA, DEQ and the EPA were not promoting the truth. Organic versus Chemicals. I was offered some grant money and turned it down as money influences common sense and logic. And the granter would me in control. In the three years of comparing Organic proved positive over chemicals in everyway. My cows were my teacher and better than test tubes in a laboratory. In sixty plus years the cows manure has changed and polluting at the higher rate. Farmers to fence the cattle out of the creeks. That is putting more farmers out of business. The chemical fertilizer is not being stopped as it took some decades to get to the water ways and will take along time to stop polluting if stopped now. This is not the case 10-10-10 was and has been the formula when nothing else fits and now it is 19-19-19 NPK. The plan set up by the OBAMA administration is to clean up the Bay by 2025 costing 25 billion dollars. To cost every tax payer two thousand dollars added to taxes in the six state area. If anyone can see logic to the procedure I want to hear. If anyone want to know if organic farming had been practiced the water ways would have stayed clear as they were in the 1940’s. I can also prove this with some simple test samples. Not costing millions of dollars but less than 50 dollars and more accurate in less time. Thanks again for your post condemning the chemical fertilizer. There many other problems with our agriculture practice causing many ills to the population. Our children world wide are on the endangered list. Please get in touch. learnedbythefencepost@hotmail.com Donald E Lewis