On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, joel b gruver wrote:
> As I mentioned in a different thread sometime ago, a very substantial
> fraction of organic farmers are depedent on poultry litter from
> industrial poultry houses... These
> poultry are certainly fed GM grains... as well antibiotics, Cu and P
> supplements and other things that have proven detrimental effects on soil
> ecology...
>
I remembered an article I read years ago regarding imported 'hybrid'
cattle in Australia.
A whole lot of 'improved' hybrid cows where imported from somewhwre
in Europe, and a few days later there was a mighty stink in all the farms
that had these cows, and the stink began to spread for miles around. Upon
investigation, the stink was found to originate from all the cow dung
spread across the fields as organic fertilizer. Further investigation
yielded the news that the local microorganisms had not been forewarned
about the new hybrid cow dung, and so couldn't decompose it. Thus the
stink!
In the state of Madhya Pradesh in India, in the mid-eighties, the state
government with a lot of money from USAID introduced Soybean in sorghum
based cropping systems. The soil fertility enhancing capapbility of a
legume like soybean was one of the primary emphases, other than the high
earnings through soybean exports. Ten years later, thousands of acres lie
devastated, unable to grow anything. The native rhizobia just couldn't
nodulate soybean. So instead of enhancing fertility, it resulted in
fertility depletion.
The lessons from these and other issues mentioned by Gruver are clear.
In agriculture we are dealing with systems which have evolved over
millenia, and there are a lot of unknowns. We need to be very very
cautious when a new technology enters the system at any point. Above all
we need to be skeptical of any technology that yields potential benefits
in the short term, while causing harm in the long run. That is what
sustainability is all about. And that is the greatest challenge in most of
the developing countries, where the most immediate concern is - where is
my next meal going to come from?
Thanks for all your indulgence in having the patience to read the comments
of an academic
D.Parthasarathy
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Powai
Mumbai, 400076, India
Phone: 091 022 576 7372
email: dp@hss.iitb.ernet.in
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