Ready Player One Tamil Dubbed Movie Watch Online
Ellington Walford
This kind of intensive agriculture comes with its own set of problems. Farmers use a lot of chemical fertilizers, pesticides (chemicals that kill bugs), and herbicides (chemicals that kill weeds). These chemicals can pollute the soil or the water. They can also create bugs and weeds that are more resistant to the chemicals, causing outbreaks of these pests. The soil can be damaged by erosion (blowing or washing away), salt builddup, or loss of structure. Irrigation (adding water from rivers) can pollute water and lower the water table. These problems have all got solutions, and modern young farmers usually have a good technical education.
Farmers select plants with better yield, taste, and nutritional value. They also choose plants that can survive plant disease and drought, and are easier to harvest. Centuries of artificial selection and breeding have changed crop plants. The crops produce better yield. Fertilizers, chemical pest control, and irrigation all help.
Farms may also keep animals. That is called animal husbandry. If they are used to make meat for people to eat, that is livestock production. Non-meat animals, such as milk cows and egg-producing chickens, are kept for their produce. "Produce" here means their eggs and milk, which are sold by the farm, usually in markets. Large animals need grassland of some kind for grazing. What they need depends on the animals. Goats eat a much wider range of plants than cows. In some parts of the world, that makes goats a more sensible choice for a farmer than cows.
It is important for there to be enough food for everyone. The food must also be safe and good. People say it is not always safe, because it contains some chemicals. Other people say intensive agriculture is damaging the environment. For this reason, there are several types of agriculture.
In this fourth OFRF Organic Researcher Spotlight, we take a look at the work of Dr. Ajay Nair, Chair of the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. His latest OREI-funded research evaluates crop rotations and coop designs for integrating poultry with organic vegetable production.
Rhianna Simes, M.S.Ed. owns and operates Verdant Phoenix Farm, a 10 acre urban farm and education center located in Jackson County, Oregon. The farm is managed as a no-till production system and is certified organic. She is participating in OFRF's Farmer Led Trials (FLT) Program to test the success of occultation as opposed to tillage as a field preparation solution for no-till farming.
As Marina Vergara, former intern at OFRF, moves onto the next chapter, she reflects on her experience gaining knowledge about organic farming in the US and building professional confidence through research and project management with OFRF. She is excited to apply her learnings at her new role as a Community Outreach Farmer.
Through a new Researcher & Extension Agent affinity group in the West/Southwestern region, OFRF is helping to foster community within the organic farming sector, creating an environment where everyone can thrive.
Our Board President, April Jones Thatcher, offers a heartfelt reflection on the joys and challenges of organic farming. In her inspiring call to action, April explores how you can be part of a healthier food system. Read her message and discover how your choices can cultivate a more sustainable future for our communities and our planet.
The Organic Farming Research Foundation leads a coalition of 90 farms, organizations, institutions, and businesses urging Congress to boost organic research funding in the next Farm Bill to bolster sustainability and economic growth.
For more than 40 years, the Farming Systems Trial (FST) at Rodale Institute has applied real-world practices and rigorous scientific analysis to document the different impacts of organic and conventional grain cropping systems.
The scientific data gathered from this research has established that organic management matches or outperforms conventional agriculture in ways that benefit farmers and lays a strong foundation for designing and refining agricultural systems that can improve the health of people and the planet.
The FST compares three core farming systems: a chemical input-based conventional system, a legume-based organic system, and a manure-based organic system. Corn and soybean production is the focus of each system because 70 percent of U.S. acreage is devoted to growing grain.
In 2008, each core system was further divided to compare standard full-tillage (FT) and emerging reduced-tillage (RT) practices. At that time, genetically modified corn and soybeans were also introduced to the conventional system to mirror common practices.
This system represents a typical U.S. grain farm. It relies on synthetic nitrogen for fertility, and weeds are controlled by synthetic herbicides selected and applied at rates recommended by Penn State University Cooperative Extension.
This system represents a diversified organic dairy or beef operation that includes a long rotation of annual feed grain crops and perennial forage crops. Fertility is provided by leguminous cover crops and periodic applications of composted manure from livestock. A diverse crop rotation is the primary line of defense against pests.
The FST team has been gathering a wide variety of data from the research plots for more than 40 years and thoroughly analyzing it using widely accepted scientific standards. The results indicate that organic farming systems match or outperform conventional production in yield, while providing a range of agronomic, economic, and environmental benefits for farmers, consumers, and society.
Healthy soil holds carbon and keeps it out of the atmosphere. Organic systems usually have much more diverse carbon inputs going into the soil so microbial biomass is significantly higher than in the conventional system, leading to higher soil organic matter over time.
Organic systems produce yields of cash crops equal to conventional systems, except in extreme weather conditions, such as drought, when the organic plots sustained their yields while the conventional plots declined. Overall, organic corn yields have been 31 percent higher than conventional production in drought years.
An analysis of the cumulative labor, costs, returns, and risk for the three systems shows that the organic manure system is the most profitable for farmers, even without the price premiums paid for organic crops. With current organic price premiums, both organic systems are much more profitable than the conventional system.</strong