SUSTAINABILITY Why organic is for the bees

Why should we go organic?


Growing your own
Chris Brown

Poisons are dangerous. They are designed to kill things, and we should think carefully about whether we should use poisons in the production of food. Herbicides destroy plants, pesticides kill insects (and sometimes creatures like the lovely hedgehog), and we really wouldn’t want any of these chemicals in our stomachs.
The surest way to avoid ingesting these nasty concoctions of toxic material – stuff that comes with a skull and crossbones on the bottle and warnings that it will kill fish and other water life – is to refuse food in this way and to grow and to buy organic food. That is to say, food that is produced by working with Mother Nature, who has been providing us with the answers since the beginning of time.
Producing food in this way will not be easy. It never was. It will require many more people returning to work on the land, digging out unwanted plants and protecting the wanted ones from predators and certain elements, but without the use of poisons.
It is not enough just to consider ourselves and what we eat; we need also to think about the soil, the damage we cause to it when constantly exposing it to drenching of deadly chemicals, and its ability to provide for the future.
In the past, products such as the notorious synthetic pesticide DDT were used to produce crops before it was realised just how harmful it was to humans and wildlife. They were subsequently withdrawn and banned. This should have set a standard whereby the health risks that these chemicals bring to the table should be established with absolute certainty before their use in the food chain is allowed. But this is not the case.
A group of pesticides is now implicated in the catastrophic loss of honey bees. In Britain, in 2008, beekeepers reported that one in three beehives had failed to make it through the previous winter. They observed that bees were carrying the deadly substances, now found in the pollen of such plants as rapeseed, back into their hives. Italy, France, Germany and others have banned these pesticide sprays.
When you consider the US Department of Agriculture tells us one out of every three mouthfuls of food is dependent on bee pollination, this is clearly a serious situation. The consequence of killing off our bee population for good is practically unimaginable.
Just a few simple elements – water, air, soil, warmth (mixed with effort) – are basic ingredients that mankind has been able to use to provide sustenance for the body.
We can still do this, but if the soil loses its ability to provide because it is thick with traces of nasty poisons that we have put there, trouble is looming, trouble of our own making.
It is better to tackle growing without relying on the use of chemicals (which we have to buy). But let’s be realistic, it would require many more people returning to working on the land, and the food chain is not organised in this way, nor anyway near it.
Organic production is not something that can be easily achieved. Needing manure and compost on an annual basis, it also requires time spent on getting plants to germinate, protecting them, growing them to size, harvesting them, storing them, distributing them and more. Anyone for muck spreading?
The best suggestion I can think of is that those who do not grow any of their own food should read up on organics and be familiar with what it really means and to show support for a cleaner world. Something we can all do to help is to keep a compost bin in the kitchen. Not to do so is a crime; we will need every scrap of compost to replace the chemicals.

Next time Facing the elements

Chris Brown runs Brown’s Farm, a small farm in Louisburgh. He is an advocate of sustainable, natural farming methods and buying local.