Is it hard to grow organically?

Answer 1

Answer 1Growing organically on a commercial scale means a loss of 25% of your crop on average, shorter shelf life, and limited choise of pesticides or fungicides to use. They usually cost more too. Growing organically also requires more labor per acre, mostly 'cos there are no organic weed killers and weeding must be done by hand. (Sure you have some homebrew stuff for the garden but it isn't comercially viable.) Answer 2

Organic food means you have not used synthetic (or chemically manufactured) fertilizer or pesticide. The most successful organic farmers use a method called Permaculture where they carefully construct a sustainable ecosystem of plants and animals. In this way food contains fewer pesticides, requires far less machinery, therefore costs less, does not require irrigation, and is sustainable in the long run. Yields are often lower but over long periods of time a given hectare will produce more than current industrial methods, largely because industrial methods require water for irrigation from fossil aquafirs, fertilizer from natural gas (which is a fossil fuel where demand has nearly exceeded supply), and seriously damages the environment leading to less fertile ground and ultimately infertile ground. It is likely that in the future small permaculture farms will produce most of the food for people, but not enough to support 7 billion.

Answer 3Growing food organically is easy for home gardeners, but more challenging on a commercial scale. See discussion section for a clarification on Answer 2. Answer 4The only reason it would be more challenging for a large corporation is because they lack the ability to suitably motivate their own people, and, they do not understand permaculture, ecosystems, the environment, or even organic agriculture. Also, it should be added that they do not understand the existing and future problems, and have no interest in anything more than a 3-5 year projected plan. The ROI period is beyond the vision of any corporation. This merely means that in the future farming will likely not be done by corporations (probably a good thing, considering the price of food that corporate farms produce versus small volume organic farms). It should not be forgotten that the food industry is the most profitable industry on the planet. Lastly, I think you will find that the discussion on the topic in the forums here is less than useful. You would do better to read about Permaculture from a text compiled by educated professionals. There are several good ones available. Try wikipedia and Amazon for additional information.