Helping farmers put real health on our plates

Organic GMOs – ask yourself, can this ever be a ‘thing’?

Wheat crop

There is no question that our food system is broken. The way we farm, the way we process, sell, buy and eat food has become an exercise in a polluted environment and polluted, undernourished bodies.

Against this backdrop the word ‘organic’ is sometimes waived like a flag – or worn like a magic cloak – that protects us from harm.

The image of organic, of an agricultural system that promotes healthy plants, animals, soil and humans; that emulates and sustains natural systems; that promotes fairness and justice for all living things; and that cares for future generations, is still strong and is still substantially true.

Organic is the most widely-used system that comes closest in practice to genuinely sustainable farming. But it’s under attack on many fronts. In part this is because there can be a large space between image and the business-as-usual reality of food production. Even with the best will in the world, unsatisfactory practices can creep in and, increasingly, corporate and industrial farming and food interests seek to benefit financially from the cache of organic while at the same time belittling, and in some cases ignoring, its core values.

As in many things the US leads the way in this. Hydroponics and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have both been allowed in organic foods certified by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in the face of considerable opposition, recently formalised under the banner of the Real Organic Project.

The US has also been blighted by the rise what some call ‘Big Organic’ – an upscaling of organic production that mimics industrial agriculture in its reliance on monocultures, intensive animal rearing and industrial processes. One component of Big Organic is some of the well-established organic brands that have been bought up by large food conglomerates; another is the proliferation of ‘organic’ supermarkets that operate in the same unfair and unsustainable way as their conventional counterparts.

It might be argued that this is simply the consequence of continued and healthy growth in the organic market. Even if that is the case, it is also part of a subtle trend that chips away at the essential nature of organic using mumbo jumbo about the inevitability of market forces and opaque certification.

Read more……click on the link below.

Credit: Hospitality and Catering News

Full article:  https://www.hospitalityandcateringnews.com/2018/11/organic-gmos-ask-can-ever-thing/?fbclid=IwAR27xuDnAPacEch7BECWOcNgzfzpqusD7DU41SfhnMBK44JMCfIlL5k16ag

First signs of glyphosate weed resistance detected in the UK

The first cases of weed resistance to glyphosate are being detected in the UK, prompting researchers to call for strict stewardship of the world’s best-selling herbicide.

Scientists from Rothamsted Research and crop consultant Adas said some UK populations of the troublesome grassweed sterile brome have reduced glyphosate sensitivity and are in the process of evolving resistance.

They added that this is the first reported case of reduced glyphosate sensitivity in sterile brome worldwide, as well as the first signs of glyphosate resistance being seen in any UK weed species.

The team of researchers – Laura Davies from Adas and Richard Hull, Stephen Moss and Paul Neve from Rothamsted – looked at sterile brome in areas including Rutland, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire and published their results in the Weed Science Society of America, 2018 journal.

“We believe these results are a timely reminder of the risks associated with increased glyphosate use, providing an early indication of the need for stewardship of glyphosate use,” said the authors.

Worldwide picture

Glyphosate resistance has been reported in 41 species in 29 countries, mostly with genetically modified crops with tolerance to glyphosate or when used in orchards and vineyards where the selection pressure is high.

The UK was thought to be at lower risk from glyphosate resistance as its use is often in tandem with other herbicides, but the use of glyphosate – first introduced in 1974 – has increased and in 2016 some 2.7m hectares of arable land were treated.

Sterile brome, also known as poverty brome or barren brome, has become a problematic weed in the UK due to the popularity of minimum tillage, the rise in winter cereal cropping and lack of effective herbicides.

Conclusion

The researchers concluded that two sterile brome populations in Rutland and Oxfordshire showed a significant reduction in glyphosate sensitivity, and it was highly likely one further population had reduced glyphosate selection pressure in a UK field situation.

The three all showed incomplete control of the grassweed species at the recommended field rate of glyphosate (540g/ha). The herbicide is sold under the brand name Roundup and other generic versions.

The responses to glyphosate of these three populations are comparable to the first reported cases of glyphosate resistance in rigid ryegrass in continental European arable cropping and similar to the first reported cases of glyphosate resistance in Australia, said the authors.

The report is entitled “The first cases of evolving glyphosate resistance in UK poverty brome (Bromus sterilis) populations” and is published in the Weed Science Society of America, 2018.

Credit: Farmers Weekly

Full article: https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/weeds/first-signs-of-glyphosate-weed-resistance-detected-in-the-uk

Eco Farming Daily discusses soil restoration: 5 key principles

Soil in hands

Soil restoration is the process of improving the structure, microbial life, nutrient density, and overall carbon levels of soil. Many human endeavors – conventional farming chief among them – have depleted the Earth to the extent that nutrient levels in almost every kind of food have fallen by between 10 and 100 percent in the past 70 years. Soil quality can improve dramatically, though, when farmers and gardeners maintain constant ground cover, increase microbe populations, encourage biological diversity, reduce the use of agricultural chemicals, and avoid tillage.

There are 5 key principles:

  1. Green is good — and year-round green is even better
  2. Microbes matter
  3. Diversity is indispensable
  4. Chemical use can be dangerous
  5. Avoid aggressive tillage

Conclusion

All food and fiber producers — whether grain, beef, milk, lamb, wool, cotton, sugar, nuts, fruit, vegetables, flowers, hay, silage, or timber — are first and foremost light farmers.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have sadly resulted in significantly less photosynthetic capacity due to the reduced area of green groundcover on the Earth’s surface. Human activity has also impacted the photosynthetic rate of the groundcover that remains.

Our role, in the community of living things of which we are part, is to ensure that the way we manage green plants results in as much light energy as possible being transferred to — and maintained in — the soil battery as stable soil carbon. Increasing the level of soil carbon improves farm productivity, restores landscape function, reduces the impact of anthropogenic emissions, and increases resilience to climatic variability.

It is not so much a matter of how much carbon can be sequestered by any particular method in any particular place, but rather how much soil is sequestering carbon. If all agricultural, garden, and public lands were a net sink for carbon, we could easily reduce enough CO2 to counter emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

Everyone benefits when soils are a net carbon sink. Through our food choices and farming and gardening practices we all have the opportunity to influence how soil is managed. Profitable agriculture, nutrient-dense food, clean water, and vibrant communities can be ours… if that is what we choose.

Credit: Eco Farming Daily

Full article: http://ecofarmingdaily.com/soil-restoration-5-core-principles/

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