Comments on: Yet Another Reason Why I Support Organic Agriculture: Malformed Frogs

By: Mansi

Mansi — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:32:42 +0000

Scary, and definitely worth giving a serious thought!!

By: The Ethicurean: Chew the right thing. » Blog Archive » Digest - Blogsnacks: A farmer learns something new, Midwestern grapes, deformed frogs

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:55:16 +0000

[...] Mess with Mother Nature, and you might just make a mess: Barbara outlines carefully what frog mutations from pesticide runoff should teach us. "When humans introduce powerful chemicals into complex ecological systems, it is very nearly impossible to predict all of the consequences. Every action humans take upon an environment causes a ripple effect that changes things far beyond the factors which humans wanted to control in the first place, and these changes may not become apparent until far into the future." Very well said. We eagerly await the publication of USDA studies proving that transgenic corn has absolutely no effect on earthworms, or the birds who eat them, or… (Tigers & Strawberries; thanks Jack) File under Digest, Friends of the fork, Miscellaneous. LINK [...]

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:08:08 +0000

They can, Agnes, if not used judiciously and carefully. Manure needs to be aged or composted before using, and it is best if it is tilled into the field, or top dressed into the field to partially break down while the field is fallow.

Green manures–or “cover crops” grown over a fallow field, and then tilled into the field after they have come to fruition.

There are improper ways to use organic fertilizers–just as there are less harmful ways to use non-organic ones.

Unfortunately, corporate agriculture does not often allow for judicious use of -any- agricultural soil amendment or chemical.

By: Agnes

Agnes — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 23:29:43 +0000

Hmmmm. I might be wrong, but organic fertilizers (manure, forex.) can create exactly the same problems as "chemical" ones. Nitrogen and phosphorus are not exactly complex chemicals, and make up a good chunk of everything alive on the planet. Their overuse in agriculture is the problem here.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:08:33 +0000

Of course, Nancy, link away. This post is one of my “only tangentially related to food” posts, which is still important.

I guess it is an attempt by me to further articulate why I tend to support organic agriculture, or agriculture which uses a minimum of the very powerful agricultural chemicals that are on the market.