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Today I’m going to address two problems with organic gardening: keeping the soil fertile for healthy plants and not using pesticides and herbicides for pests.
The first one is easy, just use compost. Almost every article I found advocated having a compost pile for your organic gardening. Since we have someone working on composting I won’t go into detail about how to do this.
The second part about pesticides, herbicides and fungicides first of all involves how much you are willing to tolerate. I don’t mind sharing as long the other inhabitants don’t get to greedy.
First, as far as funguses goes the only thing I found as far as a natural remedy was cinnamon. That wouldn’t be feasible for large monoculture farms, but large farms are a problem in the first place. Someone mentioned the wheat fungus in Africa that is a threat to wheat production worldwide. The best way to stop fungus is diversity. Instead of planting 1000 acres of one type of wheat, plant small plots of different grains, vegetables and fruits, so if a fungus does appear your entire crop wont be lost. If only ten or twenty acres were planted in wheat cinnamon might be effective. Also, monoculture encourages crops that aren’t suitable for certain crops to be grown in those areas, such as wheat in Africa. Crops should be grown that are suitable to the environment to discourage the growth of fungus. There are crops that are resistant to fungus, such as rice.
Next, insect control seems to be the biggest problem for organic gardeners. As I said earlier, I don’t mind sharing to a certain extent, and the same as the moles, I love insects so I don’t want to kill them. One solution is to bring in other insects that eat the vegetarian insects. That sounds cruel to me but sometimes nature is cruel and unlike humans, insects only eat each other to survive. The best carnivorous insects for the garden are ladybugs (can you believe it) and praying mantises. Another good insect deterrent is to plant marigolds around the garden, since insects don’t like them. Also, planting fennel, dill, alyssum or cumin will attract insects to them instead of your other plants. Spraying garlic water will discourage insects, too.
The final pest to consider in your garden turns out to not be such a pest; that is weeds. Many common weeds are edible and only since humans quit growing their own food have they been considered harmful. They don’t look good in lawns. Some of the edible ones include: Lambs quarter, chickweed, dandelion, burdock, primrose, nettle and violets. So, some weeds can be part of your food supply in your garden. For the ones that aren’t beneficial the best type of non harmful control is to keep them pulled up when they are small. In other words, as me and my brothers and sisters did when we were young, you have to “weed” your garden.
Non-harmful types of pest control ties into our class because organic gardening is a local source of food; what you don’t eat can be sold locally. Not killing pests is a deep ecology concept of not doing harm. Women growing their own food, in a holistic way, are an ecofeminist issue, and small diverse organic gardens are part of mainstream sustainability.
Remember the moles I told you about, in my yard, at the beginning of this blog? Well, this week I am going to check out the mole issue. First, I want to show you a picture of the little critters.
Aren’t they cute! The are about 5-6 inches long and very soft. I found out moles aren’t vegetarian, so they aren’t going to eat your plants or roots. However, their tunnels can be used by other rodents, such as voles or mice, which do eat plants. This is generally the cause if crop damage occurs where moles are present. Moles eat worms, grubs and insects which can be harmful to crops, so their presence can be beneficial and their tunnels can help aerate the soil. The reason most people don’t want moles in their yard or garden is because the tunnels and mounds don’t look good.
Most of the methods I found were cruel, they involve poisoning, maiming or killing them. Unfortunately the human answer to a lot of our problems is to just “kill it”. However, I did find some humane traps that can be used to relocate them. And, I did find some gentle souls who use other humane techniques for dealing with moles and even some gardeners after my own heart who found it beneficial to let them keep their natural habitat.
I found two methods that I will try. First, is that moles can be herded into specific areas. I will use this in the beginning so I won’t hurt them when I initially work the soil and do my planting. This is done by installing 10-inch high mole fences of 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth. Fold a 20-inch-wide length of hardware cloth in half, forming an “L” shape. The mole fences will be installed below soil level, pointing the lower stroke of the “L” in toward the area I will be gardening. This way I can herd them to one area, plant it and then herd them to another area until I am done. The second means of controlling them is to make worm beds, more commonly known as (guess what?) compost piles to attract moles to certain areas away from your garden. I might also try this in the beginning. Isn’t it wonderful how things are connected and holistic when you start looking at everything from a sustainable, ecologically and environmentally sound perspective?
This week I am looking at organic farming and culture. First, a little bit of history, sustainable agricultural practices have been documented since around 2000 BC either through books or archeology. Also destructive practices have existed throughout history, shown through rock paintings and cave pictures, dating from around 3500 BC, that reveal parts of the Sahara desert in Africa once produced crops and were fertile fields. The desert exists today because of over grazing and desertification, which occurs with the depletion of the soil. Some examples of successful systems include: the Chinese use of composting and mulching in around 2000 BC, the Sumerians irrigation and wind breaks, and the Aztec floating gardens which allowed them to have several crops each year without soil depletion.
The written word has documented agricultural practices, for instance, sustainable systems appeared in the first century, Columella wrote, “The earth neither grows old, nor wears out, if it be dunged.” He also recommended grains in rotation with legumes and fallow. Also during this time, Cato, Varro, Palladius, Vegetius and Pliny the Elder wrote about soil building and conservation techniques. Closer to our time Thomas Jeffereson recommended protecting the soil from grazing during the rest period, and raising a large crop of vegetables; making use of vegetable manures of all kinds, by this he meant composting; sowing clover and grass seed with the grain crop to serve as pasturage or green-manure; and practice horizontal plowing as a preventative of gullies and washes, this was the use of tiers.
Humans by nature forage, our foraging today takes place in supermarkets. We satisfy this need by wandering the aisles instead of wandering our fields or gardens. But, the current consensus is that agriculture today could be converted to local organic within a few years. Many areas are already taking this step, especially in the West. Locally, a few organic farms have sprung up but most areas of Kansas still employ industrialized techniques for farming. These include what I call the destructive three “ations”, irrigation, fertilization, and cultivation and also the use of pesticides that is so detrimental to many life forms including humans. These procedures have led to phenomena similar to the desertification mentioned above, just to name a few: large areas of land in Australia have been made unusable because of irrigation in areas where there is a salt table that has risen, and here in the US at the mouth of the Mississippi, a large area of land has been ruined because of nitrates and pesticides. It is not known how long it will take to recover this land. Nitrates also get into lakes and ponds causing exponential algae growth which chokes off other vegetation and reduces animal production.
All of this evidence points to the need for natural methods of producing food that work in harmony with nature not against it. Although I feel using organic ecologically sound techniques would produce enough food for humans, many people think we need to alter food to enhance production. If this is or does become necessary, in addition to organic farming, I think I have mentioned before the research The Land Institute in Salina, and other such researchers are doing to develop perennial sustainable crops. These crops would negate the use of the three “ations” and pesticides, and US citizens should demand more research in this area instead of genetically altered seeds.
As for the future, the use of gardens or small farms has re-entered our culture recently. As we’ve seen in class personal gardens are becoming popular again. The community garden has been around for quite some time, but more people are getting involved in these projects in the last few years. I picture large urban areas being utilized in this way in the near future, because of the demand of the people. This will be affected by rising fuel prices and growing health concerns. A side affect of this will be the offer of a type of socialization that has been lost because of industrialization, and that is the social life of local markets and gardens. Traditionally women have been food growers in the past, my Mom and many other women in the early to mid twentieth century had gardens, it was a common practice. I think by getting back to gardening women can become more in touch with there own natures (it’s very centering and relaxing) and learn to socialize with each other in different ways. I also think small organic farms and gardens will become the accepted norm as more people see the economic, social and health benefits they offer.
I’m looking at organic farms and economics today. The first site I looked at once again had Monsanto featured as one of the bad guys. Monsanto is pushing to discredit organics and raise the need for biotech crops. “The commercial industrial technologies that are used in agriculture today to feed the world… are not inherently sustainable,” Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro told the Greenpeace Business Conference recently. “They have not worked well to promote either self-sufficiency or food security in developing countries.” Feeding the world sustainably “is out of the question with current agricultural practice,” Shapiro told the Society of Environmental Journalists in 1995. “Loss of topsoil, of salinity of soil as a result of irrigation, and ultimate reliance on petrochemicals … are, obviously, not renewable. That clearly isn’t sustainable.” This sounds like Monsanto wants to change their previous techniques for better ones, but actually this is just a prelude to enforcing the need for biotech agriculture. This article pointed out that technology hasn’t worked too well in the past and so maybe its time to look elsewhere for economically and ecologically sustainable crop systems. http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~christos/articles/cv_organic_farming.html
I checked several sites that stated that it might take four to five years to offset the original cost of changing to organic from industrial farming. This is mainly due to the fact that there aren’t enough government subsidies for organics in this country. Despite the lack of support from government and university extension services in the US, consumer demand for organic products is driving the organic movement ahead at a 20% annual rate of market growth. It looks like there might be something to this movement.
In several European countries, such as Denmark and Sweden, farmers get government support during their conversion to organic and continue to receive support for environmental services that they provide to their communities, such the elimination of toxic runoffs which contaminate underground water sources. These programs helped foster an almost 100-fold increase in organically farmed land in Europe, from 29,000 acres in 1986 to 2.4 million acres in 1996. Similar programs in the U.S. could help the conversion of more farms to organic methods. These price supports do not have to be subsidies, rather a compensation to organic farmers for each of the ecological and social services that they provide.
Although there is a lack of governmental funding, the USDA states that organic farming is one of the fastest growing segments in agriculture in the US today. This web site offers data on organic farming in the US if anyone is interested: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Organic/
I will examine specific prices on my yard when I get into the planning and layout of the yard. Although, from what I’ve seen it looks like it might take awhile to be profitable, that may not be the case since I am mainly interested in growing my own food. If I have any left over I will sell it, but making money isn’t my primary goal.
MY Yard: An Organic Farm?
This week I looked into organic farming and politics and the big concern on the organic farming front at this time seems to be large corporations taking over the actual farming process and the seed production and distribution. This again takes profits away from small farmers and choices away from individual growers. I looked at sites from the US, Canada, the UK, Nigeria and Australia.
In the US and Canada, large corporations along with the Congress and the USDA are organizing to force anyone raising organic food to purchase their seeds from certain certified producers. This might even include genetically altered seeds. Monsanto was once again mentioned. Does this ring a bell? Although this type of legislation is behind some of the European nations such as the UK, once again big business in conjunction with government seems to be undermining equitable farming practices and the environment.
In Australia, they are seeing the same emergence of big business taking over organic practices, the outcome being the same problems of traditional agricultural practices such as: pesticides, nitrates, depletion of soil, and irrigation with the result in some instances large areas of land ruined by salt tables rising. The argument is that organic farming then is no longer a sustainable process. This defeats one of the main purposes.
In Nigeria, the country is pushing to become industrialized and the industrialization of agriculture is an issue. The use of fertilizers is of concern to many. There is a push to return to organic farming to promote health, not only of people but of the environment. Over exploitation of the land causes a disruption of natural processes and encourages inequitable practices for man and nature.
It looks to me like the only way to know if my food is organic is to grow it myself. Most of the sites I went to advocated growing your own food, community gardens, rooftop gardens, or coops and farmers markets as the only alternative to the growing interference of companies and the government in our seed gathering, and food production and consumption. I didn’t find anything directly relating to women in the political field, but we know women such a Warren and Shiva are active in that area. I know from experience in this country that most home gardening has traditionally been performed by women. I found a lot of sites on this material and I’ll just list a few: http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=543
http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc.cfm
http://www.australianreview.net/digest/2001/10/lyons.html
http://www.ifoam.org/organic_facts/food/Africa_Fertilizer_Summit.html
This week I’m exploring the spiritual aspect of organic farming. As I stated, I believe everything evolves from the spiritual. But I also believe that humans have grown away from the spiritual aspect of our being, especially here in the US. At one time, humans prayed for fertility, and performed spiritual rites to God(s) for abundant harvests, which connected them to the earth. Now, US citizens go to a store and throw food in a basket, which disconnects us from the earth that nourishes us. I looked into how organic farming could be considered, spiritually, from the perspective of four different viewpoints: my faith, which is the Baha’i Faith, Christianity, Islam and the spiritual side of Ecofeminism.
Later on, I will get into the scientific side of organic farming; why it is beneficial from both a health and environmental outlook. For now, as a basis for the spiritual, political, economic, and cultural discussions, my hypothesis is that organic farming is beneficial.
According to the Baha’i Faith, God’s messenger for this time, Baha’u’llah, has declared the equality of women and men, so everything in the Faith applies equally to men and women. The age old question, “Why do I exist”, has been answered by Baha’u’llah, he avows, “the purpose for which mortal men have, from utter nothingness, stepped into the realm of being, is that they may work for the betterment of the world and live together in accord and harmony.” This should be taken literally. It states the world, not people in the US, or people in general, not animals, plants, or even natural resources, but THE WORLD. To me, this means that the task of women, is to “work for the betterment”, and “live together in accord and harmony” with everything on this earth. A specific project of women in the Faith today is designed to promote agricultural practices, literacy, domestic science and rural technology, through the cooperation of the New Era Development Institute (NEDI) in India and a project with the Norwegian Agency for International Development Cooperation (NORAD). This information can be found on the Baha’i web site: http://www.info.bahai.org/article-1-8-1-6.html
For Christianity I went back to the beginning; in the first chapter of Genesis it states that God created plants and seed bearing trees to be our food (in some versions) or our meat ( in some versions). It mentions the importance of seeds in plant bearing and how each is to its own kind, several times. This stresses the intake of plants as the intended nourishment of humans and I take this to mean that the growing of food should be a natural process of earth. In Genesis, it also states that God gave humans “stewardship” over plants and animals. Some people interpret this as “using”, but it in fact means to manage, serve, guard and conserve. And further stated in Genesis he gave this stewardship to both male and female. There are specific examples of conservative farming practices in the Bible, such as in Exodus and Leviticus. This information can be found in the Bible or on-line at Biblegateway.com or many other Bible sites.
Although the following passage doesn’t have anything to do with organic farming, it establishes the principle of the equality of women set forth the by Muhammad,
“For his day, the Prophet Muhammad was a feminist. The doctrine he laid out as the revealed word of God considerably improved the status of women in 7th century Arabia. In local pagan society, it was the custom to bury alive unwanted female newborns; Islam prohibited the practice. Women had been treated as possessions of their husbands; Islamic law made the education of girls a sacred duty and gave women the right to own and inherit property. Muhammad even decreed that sexual satisfaction was a woman’s entitlement (Lisa Beyer).”
Unfortunately, many laws decreed by Muhammad didn’t favor women and eventually were incorporated into the Koran as Islamic law, known as Shari’ a. Many countries in the Mideast and Asia are predominately Islamic countries, and in spite of the low status of many women in these countries, women play an essential role in agriculture. Their main tasks are gardening and homestead food production. Instead of changing these roles, I believe the roles should be exalted and raised to the status deserving of nourishers. The information from Beyer listed above can be found at:, and information concerning many countries in the global south can be found at:http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,185647-1,00.html and http://www.fao.org/sd/wpdirect/WPre0112.htm.
Finally, Ecofeminism has a spiritual side. According to Mary Radford Reuther, a prominent feminist, “We are the parasites on the food chain of life, consuming more and more, and putting too little back to restore and maintain the life system that supports us.” Many women worship “Gaia” or earth as a goddess, but a controversy exists as to whether this is liberating or dominating. One thought is that this enforces duality such as male/ female and nature/culture, and associates women with nature as a commodity to be dominated. Another view is that spirituality can also challenge mainstream concepts of humans and nature and can be seen as the same as ethical views regarding nature and the Earth. Accepting the premise that organic gardening is beneficial to both humans and nature, organic gardening can be perceived as being both an ecofeminist and a spiritual pursuit. If women accept the earth as “goddess” then she should be treated with respect. There are many web sites on spiritual ecofeminism such as www.thegreenfuse.org/ecofem.htm or http://eve.enviroweb.org/; just enter those two words into any search.
I know this is long, but once I got started there was so much information I didn’t even know where to start. So, I narrowed it down as much as I could. I firmly believe women, spiritualism and the earth are interconnected and no matter what a woman’s beliefs (even if they don’t believe in a God) they should go back to having a close association with the earth.
As the title implies, I am going to explore the possibility of turning my yard into an organic farm. I would eventually like to grow most of my own food. This may not be doable until I get out of school, because it involves is a lot of time and energy, two things I don’t have a lot of right now. At this point, as my project, I am going to research the feasibility of growing my own organic food in my own yard, and I am going to look at it from five different perspectives: spiritual, political, economic, cultural and scientific.
The first week will be devoted to spiritual, because I believe everything develops from the spiritual. I am a Baha’i and the Faith is my way of life. So, I propose showing how organic farming connects to the Faith. Furthermore, I aim to present information concerning organic farming, and how it relates to women, from the two major world religions: Christianity and Islam. I will also look at the “woman as Goddess” aspect of eco-feminism. My feelings tell me that the earth, the spiritual and the scientific shouldn’t be separated.
Next, I plan on delving into what ever politics may be concerned with organic farming, especially those involving women; I intend to check into getting tax credits, and how much legislation supports the organic issue on the home front. But, I think there might be some useful information from some of the developing nations (like the work of Vandana Shiva), since the major concerns for these countries includes food supplies: how to grow healthy food and the most economic methods.
The third week, money, or the economics of this venture for me personally, will be the focus: Specifically, how much will it take to get started and how much to maintain. In other words will this benefit me financially? Although my major rationale for doing this project is not financial, it would be nice to think that not buying food at a store might save me some money.
I plan on devoting the last three weeks to the science of organic farming, or the nuts and bolts of my enterprise. I’m going to look into preparing the soil. This in itself presents some problems, because I have moles living under my yard. This natural habitat will have to be preserved. Next, I have the prospect of finding the right plants and seeds: to do this I might look around locally to see who works with organics, specifically women. Finally, I think most importantly, success necessitates the proper layout of the farm. Many factors become critical, such as: which plants need to be rotated, which plants will stave off which insects, where to place perennial and annual plants for best results, and which plants require more water and where to place them(I have a well on my property).
This research project seems daunting right now, but I am going to use this opportunity to build a bridge to achieving a personal goal. Through this exploration I am going to become an organic farmer.
