And with the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicting that half of this country s farm production will come from 1 percent of farms by the year 2000, organic farming could be one of the few survival tactics left for family farms. Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean-up, and environmental damage. Promote Biodiversity 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.
Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and, ultimately, our palates. Even if I buy only organic produce, I can not be absolutely certain that nothing genetically engineered is included because there is no law requiring any one in the food chain who adds a genetically engineered component to label the seed, plant, or produce as containing genetically altered elements. So when I buy a potato, I might actually be getting a potato which has a fish gene added to increase its shelf life, or a pork gene added to provide firmer flesh. The main reason I am concerned is that long term effects of adding or changing the DNA in our food has NOT been studied enough to show that there will be NO negative effects on our food, on our bodies, or on our environment. Historically, we have seen what appeared to be technological advances put in place without sufficient study of long term effects.