We need agrarian reform

The regular availability and normal pricing of organic foods. If less chemicals such as preservatives and fertilizers are used then the prices of these foods should go down and not up due to less cost overhead accrued by farmers and vendors.

 

Organic foods have lower yields per acre and require more labor, hence the reason for the higher cost.

 

Perdidochas has it right.

Additionally ... there is very little scientific evidence to support any health benefits for organic products. In fact, there is growing evidence that a diet rich in organic products isn’t actually better for you.

See an interesting meta-study here: Nutritional quality of organic foods: a systematic review

... and a more recent one here: Stanford Medicine

so it seems that more and more, the difference in price has less to do with a real difference in quality per se, and is more due to a perceived "luxury" premium.

 

Do you prefer the Cuban or Cambodian agrarian reform model?

 

Then why are we told to wash our fresh produce before eating it. Also go and try to grow two plants of the same kind you will find that it is going to cost more for that plant that requires pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers.

 

If you are talking organic you must take a look at persistent herbicides.

 

http://soildoctor.org/persistent-herbicides-in-composts-manures-hays-and-grasses/ This is the first thing to consider when trying to go organic. The stuff can also be found in feed. And it passes through the animal unchanged and is concentrated when the material is composted. It makes killer compost ....even when composting hay or grasses.

 

My wife grows most of our food but when we buy we buy organic. It will always be more expensive because the yield will always be lower than crops that use chemicals to fight bugs and disease and promote growth.

 

The quality of home grown organic or even small farm locally produced organic is night and day no matter what studies say. Obviously you have not done the taste test yourself. Then there is the residual herbicides and pesticides on non organics to consider which is another subject

- - - Updated - - -

We got manure from a non organic dairy once and it killed our veggies

 

Organic farming when done properly should be less expensive than conventional farming. Organic farming can still use the machinery used in conventional farming. It is the use of inputs that change. Many conventional farmers are restricting or eliminating the use of pesticides and herbicides and concentrating on soil management. It is called carbon farming and it is catching on.

 

No matter whether it's organic or conventionally grown, you should wash your fresh produce before eating it. It's just basic hygiene.

You've obviously never grown a garden. Organic fertilizers and pesticides are much more expensive and less effective than are conventional ones. In addition, at least around here, without some use of a pesticide (organic or not), you can just forget about growing tomatoes.

- - - Updated - - -

Not really, or we would be doing that. The agricultural conglomerates want the cheapest food possible. If organic were the cheapest, they'd be doing it. Just basic economics.

Makes sense to minimize the amount of pesticides and herbicides. makes no sense to simply eliminate, unless you are doing it as a marketing ploy, aka organic food production.

 

http://www.foodandfarmconference.com/gabe-brown/ This guy has his stuff together.

 

Another very typical "sawyer-ism" ... the implication here is that "you can not have tried the taste test yourself or else you would agree with me".

However your anecdote is certainly in line with the shopping public. 43 percent of consumers choosing organic food do so because of “better taste”. But, the science is at best non-conclusive on the taste question and at worst, unsupportive of your claim.

When people choose in blind taste tests, the organic does not outperform the normal produce. When people are given labelled food that is equal but one has a sign which says "organic" and the other says "non-organic", they consistently say that the "organic" tastes better (even though they are identical). This suggests a large psychological component to the "organic tastes better" meme.

 

I.do know a tomato grown in dirt tastes better than a hydroponic tomato. From the tomatoes I have grown at home the slightly water stressed tomatoes taste the sweetest. By water stressed I mean tomatoes grown under dryer conditions. I would also say that the only agrarian reforms I support at the present time is the elimination of persistent herbicides and some harmful pesticides.

 

Tomatoes from our garden are night and day with store bought. Twice as sweet and juicy and not mealy inside.

 

All your so called knowledge seems to come from something you read somewhere. Get out and live life and you will realize studies and reports are often not in line with reality.

 

A lot of the difference is the variety (bred for shipping and uniform size) and the fact they pick them green and gas's them ripe.

 

I agree with all of the above which is why we buy anything we can't grow at our elevation from local valley farmers at the farmers market.

 

We don't have a problem with cold. Our growing season is 225 days. We tend to shut it down during hot season.

 

Three feet of snow on our garden

 

We are in the middle of a rare snow event. But we have less than an inch. But it is supposed to be below freezing all day. We can plant onions in December and January. And potatoes in February. April 15 is our frost free date.

 

Sounds like good gardening country. We live in the PNW in the mountains and gardening is marginal. Need a green house for tomatoes and mostly grow cold crops like carrots beets lettuce kale etc. Fortunately the valley farmers have the other stuff with great orchards too so we supplement with them and I often trade firewood or rough cut lumber for produce. Works for all of us.

 

The major problem is keeping organic matter in the soil. With the biology active year round the soil literly eats itself. I have switched to a no till garden using pine straw mulch. Weeding is no fun when your clothing is pasted to your body with sweat. We have trouble growing brussle sprouts because it doesn't seem to get cold enough and iceberg lettuce always bolts......I could use some rough cut lumber....need to build some goat shelters.

 

Gophers are our nemesis and we have to do raised bed gardens with rabbit wire lined bottoms. Brussels do good here but there's a bug that attacks them. My wife found an organic pesticide that seems to work though. She won't grow ice berg lettuce because it's not as nutritious even though I beg her to.Women!

 

I have a four ft high fence all around the garden to keep out the deer and rabbits. We also get armadillos digging for grubs and other bugs.