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Organic Farming Examined
Yokai writes "An article to be released in Science shows that organic farming makes sense. The 21 year study by a Swiss team shows that even though the organic patch had 20% less yield than conventional farming, the input of fertilizer and energy was reduced by between 34% and 53%, and pesticide use by 97%, leading them to believe that organic farming makes sense. Also, the soil from the organic plot was healthier and held more organisms- including those that kill pests."
The real question is, how labor-intensive is organic farming carried out on a large scale? For small plots that fit between Swiss mountains, I can imagine it working a lot better than on a Kansas wheat farm.
Who is going to be out there doing the labor? How many more field workers does it take? Where are they going to come from?
sometimes these super green lawns look unhealthey anyway, in suburbia (shudder) there are subdivisions that seem like they have neighborhood regulations about the color of grass, every single lawn the exact same disgustingly unnaturally bright looking green
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Most people, though, prefer even the most degraded urban life to peasant life. I don't know why because I haven't tried peasant life myself. However, look at the industrial revolution and the current Third World. They aren't all driven off the land. Millions of people go to the cities and live in slums because they prefer it to subsistence farming.