Industrial vs. Organic

Billy · 2008-09-08T02:01:04+00:00

There are other arguments against "industrial" agriculture but this is the first I came up with.The Fatal Harvest Reader by Andrew Kimbrell (Editor) 19 - 23MYTH FOUR INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE IS EFFICIENTTHE TRUTHSmall farms produce more agricultural output per unit. area than large farms. Moreover, larger, less diverse farms require far more mechanical and chemical inputs. These ever increasing inputs are devastating to the environment and make these farms far less efficient than smaller, more sustainable farms. Proponents of industrial agriculture claim trial "'bigger is better" when it comes to food production. They argue that the larger the farm, the more efficient it is. They admit that these huge corporate farms mean the loss of family farms and rural communities, but they maintain that this is simply the inevitable cost of efficient food production. And agribusiness advocates don't just promote big farms, they also push big technology. They typically ridicule small-scale farm technology as grossly inefficient, while heralding intensive use of chemicals, massive machinery, computerization, and genetic engineering ? whose affordability and implementation are only feasible on large farms. The marriage of huge farms with "mega-technology" is sold to the public as the basic requirement for efficient food production. Argue against size and technology ? the two staples of modem agriculture ? and, they insist, you're undermining production efficiency and endangering the world's food supply.IS BIGGER BETTER?While the "bigger is better" myth is generally accepted, it is a fallacy. Numerous reports have found that smaller farms are actually more efficient than larger "industrial" farms. These studies demonstrate that when farms get larger, the costs of production per unit often increase, because larger acreage requires more expensive machinery and more chemicals to protect crops. In particular, a 1989 study by the U.S. National Research Council...