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Organic Foods In A Bio-Tech World

How relevant are organic foods in a bio-tech world?

A definition of modern farming techniques by Paul Smith

In the past few years the way we eat and live our lives has become a extremely important topic, there has been massive scares with such things such as CJD and issues with factory farming.

However there are so many terms thrown around about farming now a days it is hard to keep up with what it all means.

Before the 1950's, "farming" was largely applied to all agricultural activity whether it was practised on a prairie or a peasant scale.

However, since then, various new terms have evolved and it may be useful to clarify, as much as possible, what is understood by them.

1. Traditional farming

This is the type of farming carried out throughout the world for millennia past. It is characterised by self-sufficiency, age-old traditions of husbandry and natural methods of fertilizing (e.g. recycling animal and vegetable waste) weed and pest control.

On the whole, early, traditional farming was environmentally friendly and sustainable but there were periods when mistakes were made and over-use and deforestation resulted.

Some desertification, as in the Sahara, the Middle East, Peru and the US are examples of such early environmental disasters.

2. Modern farming

organic foods in a bio-tech world cow pic Modern farming, as we know it, began to develop, particularly in the West, from the 1920's.

It is typified by a more intensive use of land and buildings, mechanisation and the use of artificial chemical fertilizers and weed and pest control.

Labour was increasingly being replaced by machines and chemicals. Specialisation in crops and animals became the norm and a reliance built up on bought-in chemical and processed inputs.

This was farming becoming industrialised and large companies developed to stimulate and supply its needs.

3. Factory farming

In the last half of the 20th Century certain areas of modern farming have become even more intensive and farm animals are now being mass-produced in industrial conditions.

The most extreme example would be poultry where in some units millions of birds are kept in small, individual cages.

Pigs are probably the next most intensively produced farm animal with units of hundreds of thousands (and in the US, millions) housed in factory-like buildings.

Beef and other farm animals are also produced in large feed lots and in slatted-floor housing. High-protein rations (including until recently, meat and bone meal) artificial hormones and antibiotics are fed to improve productivity.

4.Biotech farming

This controversial type of farming has developed mainly in the last 20 years.

The technology is designed to increase agricultural productivity by genetically engineering or manipulating (GM ) genes in plants sometimes by adding animal genes.

GM crops have been developed to be resistant to specific herbicides and pests. In one case seed was designed so that it could not germinate the following year.

Although millions of acres are grown it seems as if the AgBiotech industry is in trouble. Governments are insisting on labelling or in some cases even banning GM foods, farmers are angry as productivity and profit targets have not been met and public and scientific distrust of the technology is growing.

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Living An Organic Lifestyle