very hard to grow organically with the spread of diseases around the world. We used to be able to grow Nectarines successfully organically but since Brown Rot arrived in WA we are not able to grow them organically. Global Free Trade of unprocessed agricultural products is resulting in the spread of pests and diseases across the world. Is this the level playing field, ensuring that all producers have to contend with the same diseases?

In the Western World we have left the job of agricultural research to private businesses. The problem with this is that the companies doing research are only interested in developing products to sell to farmers, you can't blame them for that. This means that very little research in being done into practices that will bring about greater productivity with less inputs. From the 1960s, state Agriculture Departments allowed themselves to become the advertising arm of multinational chemical companies. The companies provided the departments with their products to do trial work which became the basis for accepted practice.

Agro-chemical companies would have us believe that we need to use their chemical and GMO products to feed the world, in fact there is a glut of food on the world market resulting in depressed prices to farmers and an obesity epidemic causing a major risk to public health. The influence of chemical and GMO companies over governments is a cause for concern as explained on ABC radio in a report on the sacking of WA Agriculture and Food Department plant breeding technician, Patrick Fels, for a transcript of the report click here or to listen go to http://www.abc.net.au/rural/wa/content/2010/02/s2815995.htm  .   Farmers have got themselves into the mad situation of using expensive inputs to produce more in an attempt to maintain their incomes, this in turn further depresses prices. Most modern agricultural practice requires expensive inputs, a significant proportion of these inputs relate to oil use. As oil and gas prices increase many current practices will become uneconomic. Just how much energy is used in the production of artificial nitrogen fertilizes is explained by Eddie Funderburg. Evidence is starting to emerge that the use of nitrogenous fertilisers is contributing to a range of health problems including diabetes and Alzheimer's,  see the following article in the  JOURNAL OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE     http://www.j-alz.com/issues/17/vol17-3.html  page 519-529. The effect of the use of highly soluble phosphate fertilizers on plants and the animals that eat them is explored by Percy Weston in his book Cancer, Cause & Cure.  So called modern farming is little more than a way of converting oil and gas to food.  It is possible that the most "productive" farmers will be the first to go broke with significant implications for the global food supply. Another oil for food scandal in the making? Paul Roberts book, The End of Food   and  The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan both make interesting and informed reading on this subject.  As oil prices increase, organic farming will become the only economically viable option. In the last year many acres of conventional orchards around my home town of Donnybrook  have been pushed out because the prices currently paid by the supermarkets don't cover cost of production. This is very sad for the orchardists now but has significant implications for city consumers in the future. 

Organic Farming practices require more manual labour and less oil based inputs, as a result it can provide rural employment but not drain wealth from rural areas with the cost of expensive oil based inputs. The cost and legal nightmare of employing labour gives small owner operators who do all their own work, a chance to compete with corporate farmers and the opportunity to sell through Farmers Markets makes this economic model viable again. If you live in Perth, Your Patch will install an organic vegetable garden for you and plant it out with a delicious crop. And drop by every fortnight to take care of it and plant new seasonal crops. You get to pick fresh produce from your own garden every day. 

Despite what some people believe, agriculture is still the basis of any civilisation, we are what we eat, any civilianization that considers its food supply as just another economic activity to be produced at the lowest possible price  and sold on the basis of slick marketing, not on nutritional value and an absence of man made toxins, must be on a slippery slide. 

We live in a strange society, on the one hand we say that you can't put a price on human life so are prepared to spend millions of dollars researching cures for cancer, yet are quite prepared to continues using toxic chemicals that that find their way into the food chain and cause death by cancer. The respected Australian Newspaper reported on one case under the headline When farm sprays go astray. Despite this we continue to allow the use of such chemicals, Shouldn't the onus of proof of safety be on the companies selling these products? They carry out research to prove that the chemicals do what they want them to do but little research into what they don't want them to do. This is highlighted by  Andre Leu's Glyphosate: A review of its health and environmental effects.  

Organic farming is sometimes dismissed as being unscientific, this is absolutely false, there is great scope for quality scientific work in relation to organic farming practices. Because organic farming practices can’t be patented by the agro chemical companies they attempt to use scientific arguments in an attempt to discredit organic farming practices. In Australia we have stuffed thousands of acres of farmland in little over 50 years, while using up non renewable mineral fertalisers and at the same time flooding commodity markets with our grains. We should be looking to ancient farming practices for guidance. The ABC Country Hours Richard Hudson ran an interesting program on this subject on 17 Sept 2009, talking to professor of sustainability Haikai Tane, click to Listen .

All other forms of culture require a sustainable agriculture system, without farmers producing food, artists, musicians, bankers, politicians and miners could not function. Farming should be considered as the most noble occupation.   It is exciting to see that Farmers Markets , Organic Farming and the Slow Food movement are part of a process of people taking back control of their food supply and economic destiny, that in recent years has been hijacked in the western world by multinational corporations. Australia always seems to follow the USA, sometimes this is good other times it is bad. Ideas around ethical and sustainable eating in America have prompted new movements and words, an Ethicurean is described as someone who seeks out tasty things that are sustainable, organic, local and/or ethical.

Barry Green, Managing Director Western Tourist Radio.

Recommended Reading:
Going Organic, Your guide to a healthier life. Kris Abbey  ISBN1 74110 386 6

Australian Organic Farming Websites more good stuff here, including organic farming supplies.