Comments on: Organic news/CSAs

By: Mike Berst

Mike Berst — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 02:52:57 +0000

Dear Veg Blog,
We very much appreciate a thorough examination of the issues surrounding agricultural practices, and strongly encourage people to support their local family growers. Demand for organic labeling on produce is providing an incentive for factory farm fruit growing in desert regions — environmentally unsound and unsustainable. In addition, the organic label precludes the use of many safe practices, and allows harmful agents such as Rotenone, a “natural” poison, and encourages the use of sulphur and sodium chloride in the orchard. The family fruit growers have made tremendous strides over the last 20 years, and the fruit grown today is safer and healthier, and is grown more efficiently than ever in history.
Craig makes some good points about the inherently “:artificial” nature of farming, and I would recommend “Scientific Farming” at http://www.mi-cherries.com/ipm.htm to learn more about modern family farming practices.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 20 Aug 2002 23:43:53 +0000

Although I am unaware of what a blogger is, I am enthusiastic to learn that some who is vegan/vegetarian has fully researched organic and sustainable agricultural practices. To many people, mainly here in Northern California, hail organic faring as the environmentally friendly form of agriculture, and view farmers who are not organic as ecological terrorists. Yet, the same people buy imported grapwes from chile, where god knows what is sprayed on them that is illegal CA. Farmers who are not Organic do not want to harm the environment, and organic farming does one of two things: strips on are of its natural resources for use in another area, or uses a natural means of fertilizer instead of one chemically engineered, which still leads to runoff. Sustainable agriculture, which one can learn about by reading Alternative agrculture ( a UCDAVIS publication), relies more on crop rotation and other natural methods that do not remove resoures from other areas to replenish soil nutrients and microbrial activity, without the adverse effects of organic farming. But the best method to meet the WORLDS food demand and are the practical mehods employed by farmers. Remember Malthus would be right if it were not for our advancements in technology, which unfortunately have an adverse effect on the environment.

By: jen

jen — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 19:35:41 +0000

Ryan… Again I need to thank you for bringing something new to my attention! I had never heard of a CSA and was excited to learn that there are 2 that serve the area where I live.

By: Katxena

Katxena — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 23:45:53 +0000

We also joined a CSA this year, and we love it. I find our visits to the farm inspiring, and needless to say the produce is phenomenal.

BTW, I totally agree about the carrots. I was blown away by how *carroty* they tasted.

By: johanna

johanna — Sat, 03 Aug 2002 03:42:33 +0000

yeah, we just joined a csa starting near us this year & so far it’s fabulous. everything tastes amazing. the carrots, for instance–they have flavors i’ve never tasted in carrots before! well worth it–plus we’re to consider ourselves welcome to come to the farm whenever we want… so we’ve gone strawberry picking there & maybe we’ll do tomato picking later on. you should definitely try it!

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 02 Aug 2002 03:25:50 +0000

here is a thread with some links you might find interesting:

http://www.veganboard.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000724.html