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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Chemicals in Agriculture

Recently we had the opportunity to inspect a commercial farm producing Pumpkins, seedless watermelons, corn and potatoes. The owners were generous with their time in showing us about the large scale production. So much equipment is required to prepare fields, maintain the crop, harvest, process and then store. What was very apparent though was the wide use of chemicals to ensure a viable crop.

Various types herbicides are used to keep down invasive grasses as no one herbicide was able to deal with all the weed types. Crops such as potato had to be sprayed with fungicide during the growing season. Stored harvested corn had to be fumigated with fungicide and insecticide.

Waste was part of the economy of efficiency. The quantity of dumped material from the potato sorter would have kept us in potatoes for a couple of years. The potatoes dumped were misshapen or over and under sized but completely edible. In the pumpkin field thousands of pumpkins were left to be rotary tilled back to the soil. The reason being it was the end of the season and there were insufficient quantities to justify bringing out the equipment to harvest the last late manurers.

I wonder if we really know the impact of what is sprayed on the food we eat and the land in which it grows. Maybe each individual item has a short half life or even little impact on its own on the consumer. But what is the effect on our bodies of a combination of different poisons. And if you are buying non organic produce this combination is fed to you at every meal. The best growers adhere to the withholding periods but is the product really completely clear of all traces of the chemical?
This was a strong reminder to us of why we try to grow all our own fruits and vegetables. It also encourages us to buy only organic products. 

1 comment:

  1. Imaging the farm with full of potatoes, water melons and corn seems to be very interesting. These crops do not actually need huge farm equipments but maintenance is required.