My rather "unsatisfying" experience with this question was confirmed by a
very well written Guest Commentary by Joan Gussow published in the latest
(Fall 1996) issue of the Information Bulletin of the Organic Farming
Research Foundation (research@ofrf.org). In fact I felt it was rather
courageous of the OFRF to publish the piece! But, as the Dr. Gussow stated,
there may be other good reasons for supporting organic farming.
The above conclusion is not to say that soil quality does not affect food
quality or that certain practices cannot improve nutrient content of plant
tissue. For example, it is well documented that animal manure and other
decomposable organic amendments can increase iron and zinc content of
vegetables grown on sandy, alkaline soils. Nor does it suggest that poorly
managed conventional farms do not sometimes apply excessive nitrogen
fertilizer which may result in leafy vegetable or fruits that contain
unhealthy levels of nitrates. Of course the same can occur with poorly
managed organic farms that use too much manure or other nitrogen- rich
amendments.
In here commentary, Joan Gussow suggested that the main reason to support
organic farming is its environmental benefits...farming that solves rather
than creates environmental problems. To this I would add a concern for the
social/societal benefits that may accrue from encouraging small-scale,
entrepreneurial farmers that tend to buy and sell locally. Of course,
organic farmers do not have a monopoly on small scale enterprise, nor on
diversity , nor on local interactions, nor on environmentally beneficial
farming. I have seen too much soil erosion on sloping clean-tilled organic
fields and too many miss-treated farm workers on large scale organic farms
to believe that organic farming, per se, is a panacea.
The best I can hope to do is focus my support , teaching and research to
benefit farmers who are socially responsible on their farms and in their
communities, who are good stewards of their soils and their land, who are
efficient and careful managers of their own our resources. Whether they
use an appropriate herbicide to make mulch of their cover crop, or use
moderate levels of potash to invigorate the alfalfa in their rotation is of
less concern to me.
Ray R. Weil
Professor of Soil Science
Department of Natural Resource Sciences
1103 H.J. Patterson Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
USA
telephone: 301 405 1314
FAX: 301 314 9041
e-mail: rw17@umail.umd.edu