Is organic gardening viable?

 *** note the cross post ***


Hi all :)

I have just finished reading an online book "Chemicals, Humus, and The
Soil" written by Donald P. Hopkins. This book is available through the
agriculture library at http://www.soilandhealth.org .

It seems to me that Mr Hopkins makes a very strong case in favour of
using the fertilisers that are not permissible under the "rules" of
organic gardening. Although Mr Hopkins has discussed this matter in the
context of commercial farming it seems to me that as home growers we are
also looking for best yield for least cost (direct and labour) and that
the arguments he presents are mostly just as valid for home growers as
for commercial.

Mr Hopkins emphasises to a very great extent the need for large amounts
of organic matter in the soil but is also convincing in his argument
that the amounts of humus that are required to provide sufficient
nutrients for the high density planting that both home and commercial
growers favour is difficult for the home grower and expensive to the
point of impossibility in the case of the commercial grower to obtain.

I wonder if anyone else has read this book and can comment on the
validity of the arguments put forward by Mr Hopkins.

Also, are there any peer-reviewed studies regarding the "taste" of
organic vs. non-organic produce (presumably these would be double blind
trials) and the bio-availability of nutrients in organic vs. non-organic
produce. Obviously, I would prefer at least abstracts to be available via
the internet.

Ivan.

 Ivan McDonagh wrote:

thanks for the url. Looks very helpful.

...snip.....


Umm , I think different people garden for different reasons. Having a
vegetable garden is an optional activity for most people these days and
those that have them do so for different reasons.

Some of the ideas are;
1) it is a relaxing activity,
2) greater variety of foods,
3) greater variety of types,
4) reduced agricultural chemical intake,
5) self reliance,
6) skill development,
7) other.

 
G'day,
            I'm glad you jumped in Terry, a bloke could earn a PH.D
answering this one in detail!

China
Wingham
NSW

p.s. Ivan, yours is a fair post, but while you are at your library, also
check out a book by the name of  'The One  Straw Revolution',  also
interesting reading.

 

Don't forget the big reason:

The food tastes so much better!


Ray

 

<SNIP>


It's this sort of anectodal evidence, Ray, that I'm curious about - one
of my friends had a load of vegies from my totally organic garden last
year and maintained how much better they were than the chemically grown
ones. Yet I genuinely couldn't say definitely one way or the other ...
sure, they were nicer but was that just a matter of being 5 minutes old
versus being at least 5 days old?

Thanks for the comment though :)

Ivan.