Thursday, March 29, 2007

Sustainable Agriculture

Last month, I read an article on Salon, Organic Farming: Not sustainable? which brings attention to the critique that organic farming might have a larger ecological footprint than conventional farming. It's frustrating in it's muddied viewpoint. In fact, I wonder if that's intentional.

Much clearer (including it's point of view) is Can Biodiverse Farming Feed The World?

I thought I'd point out some animal-agricultural partnerships which are worth thinking about.
Old, New 'Factory Farming' - The Food Programme - BBC - Radio 4

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, traditional, management-intensive fish farming in the Dombes region of France, Bob Orskov on rice/duck/fish farming in Vietnam. Yields are higher when incorporating animals.

More on rice/duck farming on BBC's Rice Bowl Tales. Instead of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the farmer uses ducks to do the same thing. So the rice is organic and the farmer doesn't have to buy the expensive inputs.

1 comment:

  1. hi john,

    thanks for your comment about sustainability on my blog - just letting you know that I have replied

    ReplyDelete