Living on the Earth, August 20, 1999: The Imperative for Organic Agriculture The pollution created by using toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers now threatens our health directly. Almost every week there's another frightening report on the spread of farm and garden chemicals in the environment and their negative effects on ecosystems and health. This situation creates an imperative for organic agriculture which produces food, grass or flowers without soluble fertilizers and toxic chemicals. It uses nature's processes and benign methods to produce fertility and manage pests. Recently, the bad news has been about water. On the eastern end of Long Island in New York state's most agricultural county, tests of wells found that a large number are tainted by chemical pesticides. Many of the wells are too polluted to be used for drinking water. This is not surprising since on the South Fork, it is common to see million dollar houses surrounded by potato fields which are routinely sprayed with chemicals designed to be toxic and persistent in the environment. So much land is sprayed that helicopters are often used. In Connecticut, the Agricultural Experiment Station recently released a study which found residues of landscape pesticides in many wells in Woodbridge, a New Haven suburb. Fortunately, all pesticide levels were, at this point, below so-called "allowable" levels in drinking water. On a larger scale, the "dead zone" at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where almost nothing can live, is the biggest it has ever been. Although the Farm Bureau denies that the "dead zone" has any connection to agriculture, common sense and good science suggest that the millions of tons of soluble fertilizers and toxic pesticides spread on farms over much of the enormous Mississippi River watershed, are a cause of this ecocide. A friend who works for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington says that at certain times of the year, rain water there is too contaminated with the herbicide Atrazine(tm) to be used for drinking. This occurs because so many farmers in the Midwest apply this volatile chemical to hundreds of thousands of square miles of corn fields. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation reports that the use of pesticides that are nerve poisons, reproductive toxins or cancer-inducing continues to increase in that state. A large percentage of America's food is grown there. We have pesticides in drinking water, in rain and in food. So why should we care? The news about the effects of pesticide contamination on health and behavior is extremely worrisome. This is especially true for the mixtures of pesticides and nitrates which now contaminate groundwater under much farmland. Studies of children in Mexico and experiments with mice in Wisconsin indicate that these synthetic substances tend to decrease mental ability and increase aggressive behavior. Ask any teacher if these are growing problems in the classroom. Fortunately, organic methods are being used with increasing success all over the Earth. We just returned from the 25th Annual Conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Over a thousand farmers, gardeners and consumers gathered together to share information, hopes and dreams. In Connecticut, NOFA has been spreading the word about organic agriculture for over 15 years. Currently it certifies 51 farms as using organic practices. Each year, NOFA/CT holds a conference to help farmers convert to organic methods and publishes a list of certified organic farms and the farmers markets where organic produce is sold. A tour of organic vegetable, herbs and livestock farms in Litchfield County is scheduled for Sunday, August 29. An "All Organic Farmers Market" is planned for September 12, in Farmington. For the "Directory of Organic Farms" or more information, call NOFA/CT at (203) 484-2445 or visit the web site, www.connix.com/~nofact. The body of evidence which condemns conventional, toxic, agricultural practices accumulates. How fortunate we are to have the antidote: organic agriculture producing clean food and a healthy environment. What a positive vision for the future! This is Bill Duesing, Living on the Earth (C)1999, Bill Duesing, Solar Farm Education, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491 Bill and Suzanne Duesing operate the Old Solar Farm (raising NOFA/CT certified organic vegetables) and Solar Farm Education (working on urban agriculture projects in southern Connecticut and producing "Living on the Earth" radio programs). Their collection of essays Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future is available from Bill Duesing, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491 for $10 postpaid. These essays first appeared on WSHU, public radio from Fairfield, CT. New essays are posted weekly at http://www.wshu.org/duesing and those since November 1995 are available there.
