What is bad about inorganic farming?

Answer 1

Answer # 1Inorganic farming uses chemicals to simplify ecosystems. It uses soil fumigants to sterilize soil, herbicides to kill weeds, chemical fertilizers to feed crops, pesticides to control insect pests, and fungicides to control fungal diseases. Most of these chemicals have effects far beyond their intended targets.

Fungicides kill beneficial fungi that attack or compete with fungi that infect plants. Pesticides kill parasitoid wasps that control insect pests at low population densities, beforethey get out of hand, as well as predatory insects that help control pests when they do get out of hand. Chemicals reduce the biodiversity that organic farmers rely on to control pests and cycle nutrients in the soil.

Inorganic farming is also extremely energy intensive. Petroleum is a feed stock in almost all agricultural chemicals. Whenever the price of oil goes up, the prices of agricultural chemicals, and the foods produced using them, also rise.

Answer # 2The above answer, while not patently false, is misleading in that the author assumes that all non-organic (i.e. commercial) farms use all of the methods described all of the time and that the general statements given apply to all of the materials listed. For example, many insecticides now being used are not intended to completely eradicate the targeted pest, only to suppress it to an economically acceptable threshold. Farmers who use fungicides know very well that they cannot absolutely eradicate any detrimental fungus, nor should they try, because of pesticide resistance issues.

The phrase "pesticides to control insect pests" is also interesting in that it displays a lack of education as to exactly what constitutes a pesticide. Organic producers use pesticides, too, just ones approved for organic production. Modern commercial agriculture may well be petroleum-dependant, but not nearly to the degree implied.

Organic producers should be commended for the hard work they put into their crops, and provide a valuable alternative. In time, commercial agriculture will most probably eventually move in this direction, just as modern corn, soybean, and wheat farmers are finding that no-till farming provides some very real benefits; they just have to learn new techniques.