Is organic agriculture sustainable?

Question

Is organic agriculture sustainable?

Answer 1

Of course; it's intensive chemical ago-business style agriculture that isn't sustainable.  The coming oil shocks will prove this, it's going to get really bad.

Prepare for the storm.

Answer 2

Organic agriculture could be sustainable, but it is not necessarily sustainable just because it is organic.

Sustainable agriculture is defined as agriculture that meets the needs of the current generation while conserving resources for the use of future generations.

I think that people who farm organically are more likely to be aware of trying to be sustainable in their agriculture in today's environment than large scale agriculture.  It really depends on the farmer and his knowledge about what he is taking away from the land and what he is putting back.  He must be aware of controlling soil erosion, not polluting the atmosphere or water, and maintaining soil organisms, such as soil microorganisms and earth worms.

I am 63 years old and my father drilled into my head from the time I can remember that the land was our responsibility to care for and turn over to the next generation in better shape than we received it in.  He practiced and preached agriculture sustainability and returned organic matter and barn yard manure to the soil, practiced controlling soil erosion, human treatment of all farm animals, and respect for all wildlife.  I am sure that I never heard him utter the words sustainable agriculture or organic farming.

Answer 3

Read all about it

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkkGVpzxHDB...

Answer 4

Yes, TRUE Organic agriculture is sustainable....in fact it is the ONLY sustainable form of agriculture

sus·tain  

1. to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.  

That's the dictionary's number one deffinition of the word "sustain."

There have come about weird hybrids of "organic" agriculture.

Now there are megra agra business companies growing vast mono crops, with nairy an animal to be seen on the farm.

They usually specialize in growing just one type of "organic" crop.  They are as industrialized, and mechanized as the convential way of growing food for the masses.  

Industrialized Organics...BAIRLY any better than the standard mass produced crops of today.

To have TRUE organics, you MUST bring the livestock back to the farm.  Everything become this delicate balance the farmer orchastrates, between the soil, fodder for the livestock, manure the livestock leaves to fertilize the crops, the flies and other parisites livestock attracks, the weather, and the seasons.  

A good organic farmer mimicis nature.  Cows graze on small pastures of grass.  Cows are moved frequently to prevent overgrazing, and build up of parisites and flies.  Chickens are run after the cows to feast on the fly larva hatching from the cows manure, BEFORE they hatch.  Chickens as eat the grass.  The chickens provide ultra rich eggs FILLED with healthy vitamin to eat and sell.  Of course the chickens and cattle also provide their flesh to be eaten...and it's grass raised, with only a little bit of grain needed for the chickens.  

The grazing of the cows stimulates the growth of the pasture, providing even more food for themselves...but the farmer has to continue to rotate them to new pastures.  Intensive grazing...it works REALLY well!

Hay can be taken from the pastures.  Of course this is fed to the cattle in the winter.  Manure, bedding and waste hay build up in winter corrals cattle are kept in.  In spring the cattle go back to pasture, and pigs are turned into the corral where the cattle were.  

The pigs quickly churn the waste left behind into a useable 100% organic dressing to be spread back on the soil for crops, and pasture.  

Waste from crops should be fed to the cattle or pigs, again providing more manure, and more rich compost to add to the fields.

The above is a rather broken down version of what goes on at PolyFace Farms.

On my farm we raise meat goats, and meat rabbits.  The goats (and horses) graze the pastures.  I use a special whasp to control flies on my farm, instead of chickens.  Chickens would be better, since they would give me a product in return (meat and eggs).  

We use winter bedding from the goats and horses to fertilize the fields.  We grow alfalfa for the livestock to eat.  We also grow rapeseed (canola) to make our own biofuels to run our trucks and tractors.  The squeezings from the canola are fed to the goats to give them extra fat and help the achive market size.

The rabbits have worm bins under their hutches spring/summer.  Too cold here in the winter, and the worms would freeze, so they all go into the garden over the winter.

This provides me with ultra rich soil for my garden area.  We grow almost all of our own food.  

You see how true organic farms produce food, with almost no outside imput?  It is the ONLY sustainable method of farming.

Standard farming practices now are enormous mono crops, wich must have everything imported.  Synthetic nitrate fertilizers are brought to the crops, instead of animals producing manure for them.  Synthetic chemical  insectisides are brought to the crops, instead of any type of control being furnished by domestic birds, bennificial insects, or wild birds and bats.

There is nothing sustainable about having to haul everything TO the crop, instead of it already being produced by the farm.

Same goes for modern livestock crops.  The cattle now stand on mountains of manure in feedlots and have food brought to them, inestead of grazing it for themselves.  Only it comes in the form of a whole lot of corn, and medication to make them grow faster, and to keep them alive in those totally unnatural conditions.  Again NOTHING sustainable about that method of farming.  

Study the Amish.  You don't have to go back so far as to only use horses to drawn your farm equipment...you can still use tractors.  But the rest of the method of how they farm...keeping the livestock and the crops growing on the same farms....it is the ONLY truely sustainable way of farming.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 5

yes it is sustainable i hate people who know everything yet have never been on a farm and everything is bad in thier eyes typical town people.  Given the increase in world population there is no way we could produce the amount of food using organic methods, most farms are well run and are not the sterotypical image everyone thinks they are

Answer 6

yes, it started out that way, then we added technology, there is no reason we cant go back.