A Revolution

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A Revolution!

• ORGANIC FARMING

By Rachel Goudie And Holly Cloke
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Normal Farming

• Involves using pesticides which
• Increased loss of soil through erosion
• Decreased nutritional quality of foods
• Exploitation of animals in intensive factory
  farms
• Negative impact on the country side and wildlife
  removal of hedge rows and eutrophication
• Expansion of genetically modified foodstuffs.

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Why add all these pesticides ?

• Pesticides kill
• herbicides (plants weeds etc.),
• insecticides (insects),
• Fungicides (fungi molds),
• avicides (birds),
• and rodenticides (mice and rats), among others.
• By using pesticides, farmers grow a magnificent
  crop, thereby selling more, resulting in more
  intake.

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So why stop using them?
WHY?

• Its in the interests of society as a whole to
  develop more sustainable farming practices that
  use fewer farming chemicals, less water, less
  energy, and cause less ecosystem disruption while
  maintaining agriculture diversity
• AS level Geography Book Ann Bowen, John Pallister

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Organic farming
Organic food is produced according to certain
production standards. For crops, it means they
were grown without the use of conventional
pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste,
or sewage sludge, and that they were processed
without ionizing radiation or food additives. For
animals, it means they were reared without the
routine use of antibiotics and without the use of
growth hormones. http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Organic_food
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Its more expensive so, why?

• Apart from harming the environment, can it harm
  the crop?
• People simply feel safer when eating organic
  labelled food as it has to meet specified
  production standards, unlike other crop food.
  This is why they dont mind spending that extra
  money on organic food.

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Benefits of organic farming.

• No pesticide, herbicide, fungicide residues on
  food
• Less chlorine chemistry into our environment.
• No synthetic fertilizer residuals built into
  plants
• No genetically engineered organisms or varieties.
  
• Intense, realistic flavours.
• Higher vitamin content
• Higher mineral content and greater mineral
  variety.
• Organic agriculture restores the environmental
  balance and does not contribute to eutrophication
  or cause such deleterious effects on the
  environment.
• Enhances soil structures, conserves water and
  ensures the conservation and sustainable use of
  biodiversity.

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The list goes on..

• Pests and diseases are controlled with naturally
  occurring means and substances according to both
  traditional as well as modern scientific
  knowledge, increasing both agricultural yields
  and disease resistance.
• Organic foods can also reduce the risk of heart
  attacks, strokes and cancer for individuals who
  abstain from consuming products produced by
  conventional farming methods.
• organic crop ideotypes per crop and per market
  segment can help to select the best varieties
  available among conventional ones
• less pollution since there are no artificial
  chemicals to wash into rivers
• organic matter is improved by using organic
  manure and crop stalks
• the organic matter retains moisture and the good
  structure encourages free drainage

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Negative consequences of organic farming

• Increased loss of soil through erosion
• Decreased nutritional quality of foods
• Exploitation of animals in intensive factory
  farms
• A negative impact on the countryside and welfare
  
  e.g. through hedge removal and
  eutrophication
• Expansion of genetically modified foodstuffs

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Human impacts

• Ploughing up and down hillsides that leaves
  furrows that encourage the water to flow downhill
• Deforestation, overgrazing and over cultivation
• Ploughing loosens the surface soil and harms the
  soil structure
• Leaving the land fallow between crops and the
  removal of vegetation exposes the underlying soil
  to the effects of wind and water

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Case studyYorkshire farmers set up real ale
brewery

• A real ale named after the first witnessed UK
  meteorite fall is to be brewed where it landed.
• Using a 48,000 Rural Enterprise Scheme grant
  from Defra, Yorkshire Wolds farmers Tom Mellor
  and Derek Gray have set up Wold Top Brewery in a
  converted 19th century granary at Hunmanby
  Grange.
• They will be brewing two new real Yorkshire
  ales, 'Falling Stone' and 'Wold Top Bitter',
  using their own barley and water drawn from a
  bore hole on the farm.

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• Tom Mellor farms 230 hectares of arable land and
  keeps 20,000 free range hens.
• Derek Gray farms 110 arable hectares, as well as
  250 beef cattle.
• Used grains from the brewing process will be
  recycled as cattle feed, ensuring minimum waste
  from the operation.

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• The Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES) is part of the
  England Rural DevelopmentProgramme. Its primary
  aim is to help farmers adapt to changing markets
  and develop new business opportunities.

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Does organic farming affect the selling prices of
products?
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Is there a need for organic farming?

• Organic farming has always been around.
  Conventional has been in the current state for
  years or so, when intensive techniques were
  introduced to feed the wartime population. In
  that time some farmers rejected the reasoning
  behind artificial chemicals and continued with
  the old method, which is now called organic.

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LEDW and MEDW

• In the LEDW, the countries have already practised
  organic farming due to the absence of high
  technology and agrochemicals. In the UK the
  numbers of organic farmers remained small until
  1995 when the Organic Aid Scheme was launched by
  the government to help farmers through difficult
  and costly conversion to organic farming.

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Any Demand?

• Today the demand for organic foods in the UK is
  very large and about 70 per cent of organic food
  is imported from the more developed European and
  American markets

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Now

• Go to sleep and rest your brains!