Imagine you have been working overtime fruit harvesting to pay for your daughter's education. You come home one night to find a message from the clinic saying that your daughter has cancer from exposure to agricultural pesticides and has a year to live.
We as food consumers must educate ourselves about modern agriculture and the severe problems it can cause, and then we must take action to choose foods grown in the most ecologically sound way.
First, a look at agriculture. In pre-history, humans lived in ecological balance. They were roaming hunters and gatherers. As civilization arose, agriculture evolved. As civilization became more complex with increasing, settled populations and elite control of resources, the demands of food production increased and the seeds of a destructive agriculture were sown. Things remained fairly benign until this century when major changes happened rapidly. The mechanization of the plow, clearing of large amounts of forest and land for fields, the introduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Efforts to control plant and animal genetics were combined with a loss of the sense of the importance of soil.
Agriculture is based on soil which sustains life. Healthy soil is alive with microbes, bacteria, worms, arthropods and other living beings. Healthy soil holds water and nutrients and has a light airy structure where plants can do photosynthesis. However, two diverging paths in agriculture treat the soil quite differently.
According to the Organic Directory, by Rodale, ecological, sustainable agriculture adds organic amendments like compost, manure, seaweed, leaves and straw, and recycles harvest waste. Ecological farming uses methods like hand digging, low till, cover cropping, crop rotation, green manuring, hedgerows and polycropping to care for soil. Ecological agriculture uses pest controls like natural predators and natural pesticides.
On the other hand, chemical, large scale agribusiness adds poisoning, petrochemical fertilizers and uses heavy soil-compacting machinery, exposing vast acres to sun, wind and water. It also uses toxic synthetic pesticides.
Now that you have a tiny picture of modern agriculture, lets look in more detail at problems caused by chemical agriculture. We find pollution, erosion, nutritional deficiency, health risks, depleted soils and famine.
Kotke, in The Final Empire, the Collapse of Civilization, says it takes 300-1,000 years to create one inch of topsoil. Since civilization invaded the Great Plains only 150 years ago, half of the original topsoil (which was 24-36" deep) has been lost. Science Magazine, Feb., 1995, reports that from 1955-1985, one third of the world's topsoil was lost... 75 billion metric tons. That soil ends up clogging dams and fills waterways costing the U.S. over $500 million annually to dredge, besides $27 billion in other water and soil loss. Bangladesh and India have lost so much soil into the ocean an island is forming off their shores and they are waiting for it to surface. In Brazil, cattle grazing on devastated land are in danger of falling into erosion canyons and dying.
Alan York, a biodynamic farmer in Boonville, CA states in a pamphlet, "Synthetic chemicals and methods leave soils hard, barren and dry, so productivity, fertility and nutrients are lost. Then more forests are cut for more land, while the dead land turns to desert." According to Soule and Piper in Farming in Nature's Image, over 40,000 acres of rainforest and 4,000 to 6,000 species were lost annually in the 80's, even more in the 90's.
In El Salvador, Kotke tells us, only 1 in 10 people have safe drinking water, due to pesticide and fertilizer contamination, and sediment from deforestation and soil erosion. We all may remember the Alar scare on apples recently. Recall that Janice mentioned in her speech the ill effects of DDT on raptors. The National Academy of Science reports that permissible chemical pesticide residues on foods are 100 to 500 times more than what is safe for children, and 23 to 30 pesticides in use are known carcinogens.
Kesterson Wildlife Refuge in CA is so polluted by agricultural poisons, that animals are being removed for their health.
The list could go on and on, but before we are totally discouraged, let's look at some simple steps we can take to make changes.
1. Inform and educate ourselves. The Final Empire, by Kotke has an array of statistics. Read other materials about organic, IPM, Biodynamic, no-till and other ecological farming methods.
2. Ask supermarkets to stock produce and other foods produced by ecological methods.
3. Shop at a health food store, like The Organic Grocer on Steele Lane or a Natural Food co-op for organic produce. Trader Joe's in Santa Rosa now has some organic foods.
4. Go to local farmers' markets for delicious produce. Talk to farmers and discuss your concerns about agricultural methods and effects on health.
5. Try and grow a small, simple organic garden at home. Your library or bookstore will have wonderful books to help you.
And remember, as President Roosevelt said, "The nation that destroys its soils, destroys itself."
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited