"You got me thinking now. My food as a child was pretty much organically produced. We did not use commercial fertilizer or pesticide, merely crop rotation. We were probably some of the last people to use commercial fertilizer and pesticides. Pesticide choices were limited when I was a child and farmers weren't taught yet how to use them where I was raised.
We did start using commercial fertilizer, remember the 80 lb bags? That kept child labor at bay because we couldn't lift them until we were older. I remember using the first 2,4-D on the farm, not sure what year. I remember sucker control coming to the tobacco patch and di ethyl stilbesterol to the feedlot. That's about it."
If you follow the population curve, it started up before what I would call inorganic or non organic food production started. The main problem in starving people has mainly been distribution over the ages. Today's waste of food is unbelievable. Man has migrated to food sources over the ages until mainstream agriculture brought food to where he lives. Man could create non-food related jobs and the number of people who aren't directly involved in food production continues to rise.
I've been accused of the no-till religion but never the organic religion. That may change. The best food source we have is our garden and it's as close to organic food as anyone could find.
After learning "inorganic ways," I figured out we were raised like the Amish, we just didn't follow their strict religious beliefs. Dad had a team of horses, we had one tractor and we farmed more like that sect than anyone does today except the Amish themselves.
LuAnn has been buying "organic milk" on sale. She says the taste puts regular milk to shame. When not on sale, it costs twice as much. Some people buy organic every day, we don't.
It's an interesting debate among farmers. I love any kind of agriculture, organic or not. I respect those who do it and those who understand it. Food production just really interests me, it's the staff of life.
Thank you Lord for our daily bread, spiritual and physical.
Ed Winkle
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