Green | August 21, 2009 | 7 comments

Organic agriculture beats biotech at its own game

source: http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11423-organic-agriculture-beats-biotech-a...

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JanforGore
Organic agriculture's recently recognized benefits for improving food security don't depend on a boost from genetically modified (GM) technology. While the chemically-based systems that GM requires could be cleaned up with organic techniques, there's no clear reason to degrade organic standards to accept the downsides that come with biotech-produced crops as they are currently managed.

Recently, there have been renewed efforts to pressure organic agriculture to abandon one of its foundational principles and accept genetically modified crops. While there may be nothing inherently wrong with contemplating a theoretical overlap between biotech crop genetics and organic farming systems, there's not a compelling set of reasons to do so, either.

Alleging the principled barrier between the two is merely a quirky philosophical sticking point of "hard core resistance" within the organic community diverts attention from real questions as to the net value of this pairing.

Real question #1: Why bother?

To this point, biotech crops have not produced the yield advantages or biological resilience to multiple stressors. If we're looking for reliable, multi-benefit, future-oriented farming options in an input-limited world, biotech is not a player.

The question is rather: Why spend the time, money and scientific ingenuity manipulating a handful of genetic materials to end up with a specific new attribute when we should, and could, be rigorously advancing regionally adapted varieties and building up soils organically to achieve enduring nutrient content cycling and resistance to drought, flood and disease resistance.

This organic activity is sustainable in the long term, improves water-holding capacity in soil for all crops -- not just those that happen to have a gene with drought resistance, leaving the other crops at risk.

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  1. groups:
    Green,   Earth and Science,   Sustainable Agriculture,   FOODIES: UNITE,   1 more
  2. tags:
    Sustainability,  Organic,  Biodiversity,  Natural,  1 more
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7 comments // Organic agriculture beats biotech at its own game

  • phillyphil
    • 0
      phillyphil  

    • permaculture is our past which we forgot, and the future that we are beginning to collectively remember.

      it about time.

      cool article.

    • 2 years ago
  • Maven_25
    • 0
      Maven_25  

    • Wow, they've got some work cut out for them if that's the route they're taking--good luck on finding a patch of soil that isn't contaminated by Monsanto's Roundup in some capacity. Especially in the U.S.--the Devil's (Monsanto) primary playground--it's now just a giant Superfund waiting for authorization for clean up from the EPA... oh--never mind--Monsanto has contaminated that agency as well. I'm sure Monsanto will soon figure out how to patent soil, the way it has patents on its "Frankenfoods" in addition to its efforts on trying to patent GM chicken and pigs. Not sure if the company is actually making any headway thus far on the GM livestock---does anyone know?

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
  • msumonica
    • 0
      msumonica  

    • THANK YOU!!!! Finally! Permaculture trumps biotech in nutrition, in fertilization and pesticides reduction, water conservation AND a properly laid plot will restore nitrates to the soil where GMO monocultures fail. As in literally an EPIC FAIL!

    • 2 years ago
  • samthesixth
  • JanforGore
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