NewOga

We don't often consider where our food comes from or what it takes to get it to our table. We shun the possibility that meat comes from live animals and don't consider that alongside tomato sauce and mayonnaise we could have a bottle of pesticide from Heinz or a side serving of fertiliser full of ammonia on the table.

We also fail to contemplate how much of a farmer's food production effort goes to waste. A great many supermarkets throw billions of pounds worth of food away each year, which is simply unacceptable but government lets them get away with it.

If we actually thought hard and long about the food chain and its processes, the public would be up in arms at the current events. Which is why organic farming is a breath of fresh air for more reasons than can be stated here.

A World Before Population Growth And Monoculture

Enter any wild and frenzied rain forest or wooded area that has been allowed to grow under its own steam for a millennia, no human intervention and you will find the ecology takes care of itself. Plants build their own defences, they work with other species of plants to offset losses against bugs, while being home to the very pests they wish to deter. Humans mucked all that up with their concept of farming a few thousand years ago.

Growing one crop, eradicating weeds by chemical means and disrupting the natural order of nature and changing the local eco system was bound to have effects on climate change, bug behaviour and that of plant growth. Maybe there's another way?

Funnily Enough, There Is... Organic Farming

Managing Weeds: How do you keep them at bay? Not only do they get in the way of the veg you're trying to grow, but they attract other pests to the area. Organic farming prefers you not to use a pesticide so it needs to be natural. An organic farmer uses other plants to act as a weed suppressant and tries to introduce micro-organisms into the area to quell any resurgent weeds from taking root. A farmer may also use tilling or mulching processes to keep the weeds from growing.

Organic Pest Control: Pests are equally as bad as weeds, but can effect quality of the vegetation. Much like a farmer would introduce a dog to warn of an approaching wolf on his herd of cattle, an organic farmer would use a variety of predator insects to gobble up the aphids and other organisms which would attack the plants. They attract these Beatles and other predatory insects with different flora varieties.