Our organic farm is situated is in rural Ireland and it is beautiful in its own way. It’s vibrancy is defined by a myriad of greens, that supports an amazing array of biodiversity.
Over the last couple of months have you noticed fields with the now all too familiar bright iridescent yellow of dead vegetation?
These fields are yellow because multinational global corporations have forced their tendrils into every aspect of our food system and they do not have the good of you or I or nature at the heart of their operations.
These companies make it their business to ensure their profits grow whatever the expense even if the cost is our health and the health of our planet. These yellow fields represent what we are told is best practice by advisers. This is complete rubbish, it is anything but best practice.
Over the last couple of months, I had forgotten how grounding growing food is. On a sunny day walking through the crops, you feel alive. It’s the vibrancy of nature that recharge us, don’t we have a duty to protect this fragile system of life?
Using chemicals to fight nature will never work. In the short term it may give a temporary reprieve from a certain disease or pest, but that pest will come back stronger and more resistant next time. It is in a way a self-perpetuating industry.
I spent a good percentage of my early life studying and working with chemistry and I am thankful for the many benefits modern science makes possible, but synthetic toxic chemicals have no place in our food chain, end of story.
The active ingredient in Roundup: glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in human history, nearly 10 billion kg have been used globally. It is a probable-carcinogen and it now contaminates most non-organic food stuffs. It has caused the dead yellow fields that you may have seen. The pinnacle of this madness is the application of this chemical to wheat crops right before they are harvested to be ground to make flour. It stays in the flour that is used to make our bread.
This invisible cocktail of chemicals in and on conventional food is not good for our health. It damages our health and does untold damage to nature and biodiversity.
Organic agriculture is much more than saying no to the use of chemicals, it represents a holistic approach to working with nature, to our land and to our food. It means taking care of the soil and the land and it means producing food that tastes fresh and good and crucially is safe and good for our health and for the environment.
If we want to have a resilient agricultural landscape for future generations to enjoy, that can withstand the pressures of climate change, then conventional chemical wisdom is not the way.
Here’s to fresh organic food.
Kenneth
