Big Ag’s Reaction To Michelle O’s Organic Garden The Start Of A REAL Discussion?
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May 12, 2009The American agribusiness lobby reaction to Michelle Obama’s decision to make her new White House vegetable garden entirely organic just might be opening up a community-wide discussion on how our crops are grown. America’s new First Lady has been asked to consider using appropriate ‘crop protection products’.
Michelle’s Garden
It seems Michelle started work on the kitchen garden with a group of school children in March – the first White House food plot since Eleanor Roosevelt ‘dug for victory’ in the Second World War and NO chemical products will be used to tackle pests or boost growth.
The Argument From ‘Conventional Ag’
The Mid-America CropLife Association (MACA) that represents the companies producing the pesticides and fertilisers used by conventional farmers has written asking Michelle to recognise the role played by conventional agriculture in feeding America’s growing population. Some points made:
- Farming is America’s largest industry, generating 20 per cent of GDP and directly or indirectly employing 22 million people. Technological advances have enabled a single acre to produce almost 20 tonnes of strawberries and 110,000 heads of lettuce in a season
- Today, an average farmer produces enough food to feed 144 Americans who are living longer lives than many of their ancestors
- “If Americans were still required to farm to support their family’s basic food and fibre needs, would the US have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts?”
- “Americans are juggling jobs with the needs of children and ageing parents. The time needed to tend a garden is not there for the majority of our citizens, certainly not a garden of sufficient productivity to supply much of a family’s year-round food needs.”
BUT
Shouldn’t there be enough information and community discussion for individuals to make their own choices about the way they live their lives and care for their planet?
1 Comment
Chemical fertilizers enrich and pesticides kill pests, but both are foreign agents added to the ecosystem for desired effects. The fertilizers supply nutrients, but those nutrients should be derived from and supplied by surrounding local vegetation. The pesticides kill, but the insects that could naturally fight the intruders are not there to take them on next time.
Going organic would create a *balanced* ecosystem that would be naturally self-sustaining and self-protecting. Although it may take longer to set up and slow things down for a while, it would ultimately be the wiser solution.
Or, perhaps, the human-made chemicals and the organic (nature-made) could be blended initially, to allow time to transition to full organic. Purists might shudder at this, but if food is in short supply and production has to be increased, it might be a necessary step.