Travis
Misanthrope of the Mountains
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
- Messages
- 24,133
I was talking to someone about high speed rail today (which you all may know I support more than any other political initiative in my life) and we got on the subject of obstructionist farmers. I noted how strange it was that some farmers are so eager to sell their land so the train can be built while others claim the train will be a new holocaust (no that isn't hyperbole here is the link to read all about it). Anyways this person brought up something I hadn't quite heard of before: organic farming soil depletion brought about by improper use of organic farming.
So what is it? Well as it was explained to me a lot of farmers down in the central valley converted to organic production back in the early to mid oughties because of the higher premium prices for the crops. However the soil was already somewhat taxed after a century of intensive farming but was being covered up by extensive fertilizer use. After ditching conventional fertilizers the farmers tried desperately to keep their crop yield high using things like hyper dense planting (something referred to as "overplanting") because if people pay more for organic tomatoes then you can really cash in if you somehow manage to keep producing as many as you did before.
Very quickly it was realized that this was not going to work long term but at the time housing developments were in full swing and many of the farmers planned to just go as long as they could then sell their land for inflated prices to large housing project developers. When the housing bubble burst many were stuck trying to keep things going longer than planned.
And today this has led to a crash in crop production in parts of the valley particularly around the Tulare area. The soil is so.....tapped out is the best phrase I can come up with, that not even going back to non-organic farming works. The only thing that grows there now are certain grasses and it might be this way for some time. Fallow fields have become ubiquitous to the point that people are scared of a dust bowl type scenario that could hurt adjacent farms where this isn't even a problem yet. Considering California gets no rain from May to October this...just might happen. The only good news is that this is freeing up water and thus driving down some of the water prices.
That is if there is any meat to this story. This was just someone that drives tomato trucks from the fields to the Hunts ketchup plant in Oakdale.
This is the first I had heard of massive problems with irresponsible organic farming methods. Is there any chance this could become a problem all over the world if some sort of regulatory body doesn't step in?
So what is it? Well as it was explained to me a lot of farmers down in the central valley converted to organic production back in the early to mid oughties because of the higher premium prices for the crops. However the soil was already somewhat taxed after a century of intensive farming but was being covered up by extensive fertilizer use. After ditching conventional fertilizers the farmers tried desperately to keep their crop yield high using things like hyper dense planting (something referred to as "overplanting") because if people pay more for organic tomatoes then you can really cash in if you somehow manage to keep producing as many as you did before.
Very quickly it was realized that this was not going to work long term but at the time housing developments were in full swing and many of the farmers planned to just go as long as they could then sell their land for inflated prices to large housing project developers. When the housing bubble burst many were stuck trying to keep things going longer than planned.
And today this has led to a crash in crop production in parts of the valley particularly around the Tulare area. The soil is so.....tapped out is the best phrase I can come up with, that not even going back to non-organic farming works. The only thing that grows there now are certain grasses and it might be this way for some time. Fallow fields have become ubiquitous to the point that people are scared of a dust bowl type scenario that could hurt adjacent farms where this isn't even a problem yet. Considering California gets no rain from May to October this...just might happen. The only good news is that this is freeing up water and thus driving down some of the water prices.
That is if there is any meat to this story. This was just someone that drives tomato trucks from the fields to the Hunts ketchup plant in Oakdale.
This is the first I had heard of massive problems with irresponsible organic farming methods. Is there any chance this could become a problem all over the world if some sort of regulatory body doesn't step in?
