Letters to the Editor
-
We may not be stuck, but the model needs to change
Current large-scale, monoculture agriculture (organic or not) depends on two things: expectations that the product will become part of the commodities market, and that the product will be shipped around the globe to wherever there is a buyer for such huge quantities. I would imagine that most crops produced from mega farms does not end up in your grocery store's produce section--I would wager a healthy sum that it goes to the manufacturers of highly processed foods and becomes part of your frozen microwave meal or your sugary breakfast cereal.
This is a completely different approach than the bio-diverse, organic approach to farming. This type relies on seasonal foods, diversity of crops and animals on the same farm, and primarily local (or regional) consumption. There are fewer consumers needed to support the farm, because each consumer buys more from the farm's wide variety of products through the entire year, not just at the end of one or two harvest seasons.
I don't think we can compare the two--a mega farm that just provides a single crop (i.e. corn) can probably produce vastly larger quantities of that crop than a bio-diverse sustainable farm of the same size. However, the mega farm only produces a single element in the diets of people, and there must be many, many buyers to consume it all. Hence the commodities market and global shipping of products.
The goals of the bio-diverse sustainable farm are to provide a wide variety of items and to farm all year, but it produces fewer of each item. The trick is to become a supplier of many food staples to the local and regional community, throughout the year. Corn, wheat, soy, fruits from orchards, vegetables, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, etc.
The yield could be greater overall because of the sheer variety--a good amount of many more things, rather than just the maximum amount of one thing. That's just mathematics.
I think we are trying to compare apples to oranges here. Or rather Corn (with a capital C) to corn, wheat, soy, fruits from orchards, vegetables, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, milk, eggs, compost for your garden and straw for your straw bale house.