Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and cleanup, and environmental damage. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil, which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant, and ultimately, our palates and bodies. Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts.
Single crops are also much more susceptible to pests, making farmers more reliant on pesticides.
Despite a tenfold increase in the use of pesticides between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have doubled - partly because some insects become genetically resistant to certain pesticides. And, we are seeing the same thing happening in drugs used to fight viruses in the human body - they can no longer do the job as the viruses have mutated. A national Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a six times greater risk than nonfarmers of contracting cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers has risen an average of 14 percent a year since 1973 and doubled between 1975 and 1985. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in the state.