Franklin Laemmlen/On the Farm | Posted: Sunday, December 10, 2006 12:00 am
Many persons grow up with the notion that nature is kind, good, gentle and peaceful. We take a drive in the country and marvel at the beautiful crops and pastoral scenes and landscapes, and we are glad we have the privilege of living on the Central Coast.
The radio, television, printed media and more tell us daily that “natural fiber,C “natural foods,C “whole grains,C “organic foodsC and “fruits as nature has prepared themC are good and healthy, and we should select those products over the ones that do not have those “characteristics.C
Although it is not mentioned, the implication is that foods and fibers that have been developed and manipulated by man 7 i.e., grown using manufactured fertilizer, modern pesticides, improved breeding techniques, biotechnology, etc. 7 are somehow not as good and may even be harmful.
I was recently standing in line at a local grocery store, and the woman ahead of me made the following comment to the cashier, rather proudly: “I don/t buy any food that is not organic.C
Not willing to let the opportunity pass by, I said with tongue in cheek: “All food is organic, unless your diet is confined to water, soil and rocks!C
She replied: “I mean certified organic!C
I said: “Do you really think that certified organic food is grown without using pesticides? If you are interested, I can show you a long list of chemicals that are approved for use on organically certified food.C
At that point, the woman fell silent, picked up her groceries and left the store.
The point of that little story is not to show disdain for certified organic food production but to point out the fact that food production as we know it today is not possible without human and technical help and intervention.
For example, corn as we know it today would not exist without continued human manipulation. All the hybrid crop plants 7 broccoli, cauliflower, wheat, tomatoes and many more 7 from which we derive much of our food, certified organic and conventionally grown alike, would revert to plants with less desirable attributes without continued human intervention.
As a society, we have decided we like a permanent place to live; we like a stable source of fiber from which to make clothing; and we like a stable, plentiful and safe food supply.
We have decided that giving up the “hunter/gatherer,C wandering lifestyle is a good thing and something that benefits us all. However, to accomplish that stable society, we need to grow plants and animals in large numbers under managed and controlled conditions.
When any one plant or animal is grown in mass numbers in a concentrated area, all the organisms 7 insects, fungi, nematodes, bacteria, viruses, etc. 7 that use that plant or animal as a food source also tend to congregate in the same location. That results in crop or animal damage.
To mitigate pest and disease problems, the agriculturist uses many tools, such as improved crop varieties that have insect and disease resistance, fertilizers that improve plant health, weed control techniques 7 both chemical (herbicides) and physical (cultivation) 7 that remove the weed competition from the crop, improved irrigation techniques that help deliver equal amounts of water to all the plants in a field and the judicious use of plant protection products 7 pesticides.
All the above tools and practices are used by conventional and certified organic growers alike.
Farmers and ranchers do not grow our food and fiber crops for the fun of it. Well, yes, they do, but they also grow food and fiber to make a profit. They cannot continue their chosen vocation unless they do!.
To attempt to make a profit, they must manage and manipulate plants and animals to the best of their knowledge and ability to keep them healthy, productive and profitable.
So the next time you view a beautiful field of produce or enjoy a pastoral scene on our Central Coast, realize the bounty of food and fiber that comes from those fields and farms comes at a cost. Those scenes that look “naturalC are not naturally kind, good and benign.
Nature is highly competitive, and only the strong and those that can adapt survive. In modern agriculture, the survivors are manipulated, managed, cuddled and cared for.
The result is that we enjoy the most bountiful, safest, cheapest and nutritious food supply on Earth.
I like to rephrase Winston Churchill/s famous words about the Royal Air Force in World War II as follows: “Never before in history have some few fed so many, so much, so well for so little.C Thank you, Central Coast and American farmers.
Franklin Laemmlen, Ph.D., is the county director and vegetables/pest management advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Santa Maria. For more information on the UC Cooperative Extension, visit the Web site at http://cesantabarbara.ucdavis.edu.
Dec. 10, 2006