Influences of Organic Farming

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In 2001, 77% of the land in Britain was used for agricultural purposes (Science Direct). Now, a large amount of their biodiversity exists on land solely to produce food. A great amount of work is put in to make edible food and this intensity has resulted in systems that need constant human interaction to be sustainable. The overworking of these areas has contributed to a drop in biodiversity, bringing up worries about the overall quality of the landscape. As a result, 70% of farmers choose to stick to conventional settings despite of issues like, as the change would be too drastic (Morgan and Murdoch para. 38).

A trend that has been noticed is that the quality of food has been diminishing with raising levels of carbon dioxide. Despite being good for plants, and the fact that they depend on it to survive, problems are arising because of manmade processes. The use of less inputted oil and natural gas reduces the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere, and this also cuts the issue of global climate change.

To have a high yield from a given crop, that produces a quality and cost-effective food, just like conventional farmers, organic farmers need to supplement their soil with Nitrogen. In the organic system of farming; this is a great contradiction in the practices that are used. This raises perplexing questions that have to be answered. If farmer’s crops have low levels of nitrogen, the farm will not have an overall healthy experience. Farmers now need to figure out which sources to supplement missing nitrogen from, how exactly to transfer this into organic methods, and if it could be labeled organically in the first place. In order to find needed nitrogen levels to be supplemented, you need to know how much nitrogen a specific crop is supposed to get. Then calculate the amount of pounds nitrogen the organic matter will release from the soil. Finally, research provided amounts of nitrogen produced by other factors such as cover crops, and subtract the value. This number will be the amount levels nitrogen that has to be supplemented for the respective crop.

A great supply of nitrogen could be found in green manures that have the ability to cultivate in a great quantity. These manures could provide almost all, if not all needed nitrogen levels that have to be supplemented. Each type of compost has differing levels of nitrogen. For example, about 5 pounds should be provided from dairy manure per ton; poultry manure contains about 15 pounds per ton (Grubinger para. 4).

Another factor to consider in the debate between organic farming and conventional farming is cost. Organic corn prices could scope anywhere from 20% to 140% higher than prices from conventional farming. Production of tomatoes, soybeans, safflowers, and corn cost about 53% greater in organic settings than those in conventional ones, based off a California experiment (Pimentel, Hepperly, Hanson, Douds, and Seidel para. 54). Profits continue to be slightly higher for conventional foods sold because of the process used to make them. Unfortunately, because production costs are greater for organic farming and the food it produces will cost more, many people will often settle for the unhealthier, cheaper alternative. Despite the cost, people are starting to realize that purchasing the more expensive foods will be a less expensive choice in the long run because health is invaluable.

The two different types of farming so far discussed differ greatly in areas such as methods used for pest control, crop rotation, fertilizing the crops, and cultivating the crops. As a result of how organic farmers rotate crops, it allows them to mainly avoid the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Organic materials also has a beneficial affect on soil activity, as it increases not only soil fertility and soil atmosphere, but also the resources water and nutrients. Because organic methods may include a third rotation of a “green manure legume crop,” which requires less manipulation of the soil, soil productivity is thriving and erosion rates are lower. Factors such as these are bringing up serious interest organic farming. Overall, farming is a long-term process, and these organic procedures have proven to significantly reduce harmful effects observed on farms. In a study long-term effects organic and conventional soil is compared; it is concluded that organically used soil has greater activity and thicker earth depth than conventionally used soil (Reganold and Elliott 2).

While numerous studies have been done explaining how organic farming should be a preferred method of farming, the potential health problems remain unclear. Are the methods used in the organic procedures too good to be true? Surprisingly, farmers are uneducated in the sense that after they have used the most well known method of disease-prevention, for preventing or treating ailments such as metabolic disorders, there are few alternatives to turn to. A miniscule amount of data is available to study and ultimately preform unconventional treatments. Resulting because of this, it has been found that organic farmers are struggling with unnecessary and excessive veterinary expenses.

Organic farmers ideally want to create a sustainable balance between the animals and their crops coexisting amongst one another. Farmers also want to reduce pollution while providing their livestock with sufficient resources. Diseases observed in cattle mainly include mastitis, which is observed to be about the same on conventional and organic farms, and E-coli. To prevent this in conventional farming, the farmers could simply switch the corn feed to let the cows graze natural in the grass. This could reduce the levels of E-coli in an animals gut as much as 80% (Pollan 256). This poses serious health risks because when bacteria are found on the ground, as it is easily able to travel from the manure then eventually to the hide. The speed at which slaughter takes place is extremely fast and cleaning is inefficient. With these factors taken into consideration, it is likely that the bacteria would transfer to the hide onto the meet we cook, serve, and eventually eat. In pigs, erysipelas and scabies were the most viewed diseases in organic farming. The primary issue is how to feed animals less extremely on a large-scale production. Overall hygiene is an element that should be expanded upon. Because organic farmers do not use synthetic medicine, they turn to phytotherapy to preserve the well being of the animals, as these treatments could be used in organic systems. Even then, phytotherapy does not have a broad range of abilities. Main problems organic farmers seem to struggle with is that they struggle to prevent the diseases in the first place.

Another factor organic farmers have to fight against is weed control. WeedsFarmers say they are