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organic or not

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ACE:
Somebody put forward a motion to only use organic methods on one of the other allotment sites.  It was voted in by their committee and everything they have to do was put on a noticeboard which was pulled down and ripped up overnight. I don't hold with forcing people to use their plots organically. Good if they do but to make it compulsory is a step too far. I would have told  the idiot to go away in a reproductive manner.

saddad:
I agree, good if they do, but it is no business of the committee to try and force such changes on existing tenants.

Obelixx:
Much better to lead by example and show it's a good way to garden than to ram it down unwilling throats.

gray1720:
If I were you, Ace, I'd make sure you have plenty of surplus organic califlowers to give to them!

Once you've cooked one of those, you appreciate why people leapt on chemicals with joy when they came on the scene.

Tee Gee:
I always saw the term 'Organic' a bit subjective, simply because no one seems to be able to give definition to the word 'organic.

For example, I did a Google and got this;

not using artificial chemicals in the growing of plants and animals for food and other products:

Does this mean you can use pure chemicals?

Does this mean you shouldn't give chemicals to cows to prevent tuberculosis?

Then there was the amino-pyralid problem where animals could eat treated pasture because it did not harm them, yet it is regularly recommended that gardeners use 'Farmyard manure'

Then there was an occasion on my allotment when one of the lady plot holders (a mother) said she would never give vegetables that had been sprayed with chemicals to her children, but later in the discussion she had no qualms about giving their children Calpol or similar drugs designed for children.

In the thirty or so years I worked my allotment, I looked upon 'chemicals' as plant medicine and like all medicines be they for plants or humans I only used them when needed not like some commercial growers who use chemicals as 'Preventative Medicine' meaning their plants were dosed whether they needed it or not!

I have thought about this subject for years and tried to discover when 'organic' growing was first used,  and as far as I can tell it was around the time supermarkets (or self-service stores) came to be.

Stores found that product waste increased as a result of customers searching through fruit and veg for items were the size and colour they wanted, and in the process they often bruised the product, hence the increase in rotting products.

To counteract this, the stores started looking to at better lighting and edible polishes to encourage people to select the product they wanted  from the top of the pile, this necessitated fetching in the boffins to create edible polishes, and this is when the chemical issue come into focus.

What the boffins found when they tested the various products, they found frightening amounts of fungicides and insecticide residues on the surfaces of various fruits & veg that had been put there by the 'growers'.

BTW; the chemicals of the day then were DDT, Paraquat, Nicotine to name but a few!

Around the same period, it was found that rivers were filling up with masses of aquatic plants, which was traced back to the water run-off from cultivated fields that had been treated with an excessive amount of artificial fertilser.

It was then (the 60s as I recall) that legislation was passed to control excessive use of fungicides/pesticides and fertilisers  and growers were asked to grow more "ORGANICALLY". But as always it was 'the amateur gardener' that had the finger pointed at them and access to such products was usually made under licence, something commercial growers could get, but the amateur gardener couldn't.

I think of it this way; If I am feeling poorly I will use an 'across the counter' drug or go to the doctor and get a prescribed drug,  so why can I not give my plants some form of medicine to make them healthy again.

So my motto is; Let common sense prevail, not some form of forced legislation!

ps Did you know that the 92% of the genes found in plants can be found in humans, meaning a little of what I fancy will do me good, so why can't this apply to my plants?

Happy New Year everybody and I hope every thing on the plot grows well in 2022.

Just think in 2022  the boffins might make booster jabs for our plants and give a whole new meaning to organic gardening :icon_cheers:

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