Tag Archives: Organic

Hand-Weeding Labor Shortages Result in Organic Crop Loss

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Agriculture is facing a severe shortage of workers. Many fruit crops are even going unharvested because of a lack of pickers. Organic growers require more labor for tasks such as weeding since herbicides cannot be used. A recent experience by an organic grower in Washington illustrates the risk of going without herbicides in these times of labor shortages…

“Jon Warling, a labor contractor in Othello, said demand for workers is high and that an organic corn grower near Connell is discing under his corn because he can’t find enough workers for weeding.”

Author: D. Wheat
Headline: Labor committee hears litany of woe.
Publication: CapitalPress.com. July 20, 2012.

Organic Rice Growing Reduced Average Yield of Rice in Texas

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Eight percent of the rice acreage in Texas is managed organically. These organic acres have much lower yields than conventionally grown acres. As a result, the overall yield of rice in Texas has declined.

“Organic rice acreage accounted for ca. 8% of the state’s total rice production. Organic rice fields typically yield ca. 30-40% of conventional commercial yields, this brought down the statewide average rice yields. An organic rice crop that yields 40% of the yield of a conventionally [grown] crop is equal to a 60% yield decrease. Multiplying a 60% yield decrease by 8% of the acreage is equal to a 5% drop in the average yield per acre.”

Author: L.T. Wilson
Affiliation: Texas A&M University
Title: From the Editor… Changes in Texas Rice Production
Publication: Texas Rice. 2007. Winter:2.

Organic Vegetable Crops Require Thousands of Hours of Weeding by Hand

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The biggest constraint to the expansion of organic crop growing is the lack of chemical controls for weeds – herbicides. Hand weeding is often required to remove weeds from organic fields. A very large number of worker hours are required for weeding, as reported in a recent article from Germany…

“In organic crop production, manual control of weeds is still laborious in a number of row crops that have poor competitive ability. It is difficult to control weeds that grow within the crop rows (intra-row weeds) by physical weed control; typical figures for hand-weeding time are in the range of 100-400 hours/hectare in carrot, direct-sown leek and onion, and it has even been reported to exceed 1000 hours/hectare.” 

Authors: J Rasmussen¹, C B Henriksen¹, H W Griepentrog² and J Nielsen¹
Affiliations: ¹University of Copenhagen, Denmark; ²University of Hohenheim, Germany
Title: Punch planting, flame weeding and delayed sowing to reduce intra-row weeds in row crops.
Publication: Weed Research. 2011. 51:489-498.

Cool Spring Weather Leads to Problems for Organic Potato Growers

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Organic growers are severely limited in the tools that they can use to fight fungal infections since they cannot use effective chemicals. One unhappy result was severe losses to diseases in the organic potato fields of Northern California last fall.

“John Crawford, part owner of Crawford Farms, Inc. for commercial farming and Cascade Farms for organic farming in Tulelake, said everyone across the county is two weeks behind on their potatoes. … The cool spring also contributed to problems with rhizoctonia disease… Rhizoctonia girdles the roots and the stem, then the plant withers and yield is reduced.”

“Rhizoctonia was a huge problem in Crawford’s conventional potatoes and crops would have a 100 percent infection rate. Now, with the new chemical compounds, he has good control. But Crawford said he continues to struggle with rhizoctonia in his organic potatoes. ‘It’s our worst enemy in organics because we really don’t have a natural compound that is very good at fighting it,’ he said, adding in one field of organic potatoes he estimates 75 percent are infected with rhizoctonia. … Crawford estimated at least a 20 percent yield loss from rhizoctonia damage.”

Author: Kathy Coatney
Title: Rhizoctonia and wilt create challenges for potato growers.
Publication: Ag Alert. September 14, 2011. p.18

Organic Cotton Discontinued in Uganda – Due to Damage to the National Economy!

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Cotton is considered one of the most strategic commodities in Uganda for increasing household income, creation of employment, industrialization and poverty alleviation. In 1995 the Swedish International Development Agency began promoting organic methods of growing cotton in Uganda. The area under organic management expanded rapidly. Farmers were attracted to organic cotton because the promoters promised a premium price. Then, the reality of trying to grow cotton without chemical pesticides sunk in, shown below in remarks from a presentation by Jolly Sabune, Managing Director of the Cotton Development Organization.

  • During 2007/8, the en-mass introduction of organic caused over 68% drop in yields in the organic areas.
  • National cotton production also dropped by 50% from 134,000 bales in 2006/7 to 66,500 bales in 2007/8.
  • Organic promoters were sabotaging government efforts of increasing cotton yields by de-campaigning use of the effective conventional pesticides.
  • Following the sharp decline in production due to en-mass introduction of organic cotton, the government of Uganda decided that organic cotton promoted in the manner seen during 2007/8 was entrenching poverty rather than alleviating it and would therefore not be accepted.
  • Anyone who wants to support small-scale farmers in cotton must therefore promote conventional cotton production.

Author: Jolly Sabune
Affiliation: Cotton Development Organization
Title: Organic Cotton Production: Uganda’s Experience. Available at: http://www.icac.org/meetings/plenary/70_buenos_aires/documents/os3/os3_sabune.pdf

Birds Prefer Conventionally Grown Wheat Due to Higher Protein Levels

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There is considerable debate about the merits of consuming organic foods. Some studies have found that certain animal species prefer to eat organically-grown crops. However, these results have been challenged by a recent study…

“One key reason why consumers buy organic food is because they consider it to be better for human and animal health. Reviews comparing organic and conventional food have stated that organic food is preferred by bird and mammals in choice tests. This study shows the opposite result – that captive birds in the laboratory and wild garden birds both consumed more conventional than organic wheat when given free choice. There was a lag in preference formation during which time birds learnt to distinguish between the two food types, which is likely to explain why the present results differ from those of previous studies.”

“A further experiment confirmed that, of 16 potential causal factors, detection by birds of consistently higher levels of protein in conventional seeds (a common difference between many organic and conventional foodstuffs) is the likely mechanism behind this pattern. The results of this study suggest that the current dogma that organic food is preferred to conventional food may not always be true, which is of considerable importance for consumer perceptions of organically grown food.”

Authors: A.J. McKenzie and M.J. Whittingham
Affiliation: School of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Title: Birds select conventional over organic wheat when given free choice.
Publication: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. (2010) 90:1861-1869.

Sustainable Ag Pioneers Learn Value of Modern Herbicides

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Dick and Sharon Thompson of Boone, Iowa are pioneering giants of the sustainable agriculture research agenda in the U.S. They helped found Practical Farmers of Iowa. Since 1986, the Thompsons have conducted on-farm research trials and have produced an annual report. The Thompson farm is not organic; however, they generally do not use herbicides, preferring to use a rotary hoe to destroy weeds. In most years, the mechanical control works well, but then came the very rainy 2008 growing season…

“2008 was not a good year for soybeans because of weather, rain and more rain. This was the first year that we lost money on a soybean field. We could not rotary hoe. The beans were good size when we cultivated the first time (June 24). The cultivator threw soil in and around the bean plants, looked like an excellent job. It rained 1.25 inches two days later on June 26 starting all the weed seed we pushed into the row. We had grass in the row, which is not the norm, along with broadleaf weeds. … The field was a mess. The rope wicks attached [to] our old hyboy filled with round up [herbicide] went up and back on the same rows to kill the weeds so that our small combine could harvest the field. The rope wick killed the weeds and the combine was able to handle the dead weeds. The yield was 37 bushel per acre, 7 bushel below county average of 44 and we lost $49 per acre. The field was sprayed for aphids adding more expense.”

“We could not manage weeds in the end rows of corn and soybean fields without herbicides.”

Authors: Dick and Sharon Thompson
Publication: Thompson Agriculture Alternatives 2009 Report
Available at: http://www.practicalfarmers.org/resources/alternatives-in-agriculture.html

“Organic Blueberries Don’t Come Easily”

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The New York Times ran an article with this title in 2011 to inform readers why there are so few organic blueberries grown in New Jersey – “the blueberry capital of the world”. It seems that the organic blueberry growers are powerless to prevent massive feeding on their berries by insects that call New Jersey home. On the other hand, blueberry growers who use chemical insecticides are able to control the insect problem and harvest 2 to 4 times more blueberries per acre.

“New Jersey is one of the country’s top producers of blueberries, yet only a small number of farms are organic. And considering all the obstacles presented by nature, it’s not hard to see why. Insects like the root grub and the plum curculio, as well as some fungi, contribute to organic farmers’ loss of up to 50 percent of their berries a season, whereas conventional farmers may lose 5 percent or 6 percent, said Peter Oudemans, a Rutgers professor and a plant pathologist at the Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research in Chatsworth, Burlington County. Blueberry plants are native to New Jersey, Dr. Oudemans said, which makes them a natural food choice for native insects. ‘Planting a solid acre of organic blueberries in New Jersey is like throwing a peanut butter sandwich into a room full of kindergartners,’ said Dr. Oudemans, of Hammonton, ‘the blueberry capitol of the world,’ according to a local highway sign. ‘Everything around is going to go for them.'”

“‘We have to do twice the work of conventional growers,’ Mr. Condo [an organic grower] said. ‘It’s a lot harder and much more labor-intensive. Conventional farmers probably get around two or three thousand crates per acre. We’re lucky if we get 700 to 900.'”

Authors: Tammy La Gorce
Title: Organic blueberries don’t come easily.
Publication: The New York Times. June 17, 2011.

Fungicides Prevent Wheat Losses in the Pacific Northwest – Organic Growers Can Only Pray

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Cool, wet weather causes explosions of the stripe rust fungus in wheat fields of the Pacific Northwest. Two articles by Matthew Weaver explain how most growers applied fungicides to prevent yield loss in 2011 while organic growers could only hope that they would not be hit by the disease.

From “Researchers say vigilance against stripe rust a must”:

“Even though there’s more stripe rust in Pacific Northwest wheat fields this year, researchers say the outlook is good -— as long as farmers spray their fields and keep an eye on them.”

“…most growers in Oregon are already on their second application of fungicide and many will make a third application, which is extremely unusual.”

“In most fields, the stripe rust is under control if sprayed. Very few fields haven’t been sprayed, Chen said. Farmers who haven’t should compare the cost of spraying to the potential for yield losses if they don’t, Chen [research plant pathologist with USDA’s ARS] said. ‘It can not only cause a problem in their fields, but also to their neighbors and potentially to the whole region,’ he said, noting rust spores can be carried by the wind.”

From “Rust resistance key to organic wheat survival”:

“Organic wheat growers in the Pacific Northwest are concerned about stripe rust, an epidemic for which they have few treatment options. … Oregon State University wheat breader Mike Flowers said most organic growers were hit by the stripe rust ‘pretty hard’ but losses vary depending on the variety of wheat they grew. … Corvallis, Ore., farmer Clinton Lindsey, farm manager of A2R Farms, said one of his best red wheat fields was ‘completely devastated’ by the rust.”

“There aren’t many options available to organic producers, researchers and farmers say. ‘Pray or not pray,’ said Owen Jorgensen, a Coulee City, Wash., farmer who is on the northern edge of the stripe rust region.” 

Author: Matthew Weaver
Titles:”Researchers say vigilance against stripe rust a must” 27 May, 2011 and “Rust resistance key to organic wheat survival” 8 July, 2011
Publication: Capitol Press

Inability to Control Pest Damage Limits U.S. Organic Hop Acreage

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Hops damaged by mites, aphids and mildew are of poor quality and are unacceptable for brewing beer. Only 2% of U.S. hop acres are organic because without the use of synthetic chemical insecticides and fungicides, organic hop growers are extremely vulnerable to having their crop rejected by brewers due to poor quality. This situation is described in the following recent article…

“Demand for organically grown hops from consumers via the brewing industry is on the rise; however, due to high [nitrogen] requirements and severe disease, weed, and arthropod pressures, hops are an extremely difficult crop to grow organically.”

“Disease, fungal infection, and arthropod pests that can damage hop cone quality are controlled by frequent and persistent application of pesticides in conventional hopyards, an option unavailable to organic hop growers. … Due to the direct correlation between quality and price of hops, a crop can be drastically affected by pests and diseases that alter not just the brewing quality but also the aesthetics of the crop as well. Any loss of quality can cause a crop to lose value or be damaged to the point at which it is completely unsalable.”

“The organically certified chemical controls against arthropod pests in organic crop production are limited and generally less stable and effective than their synthetic counterparts due to uncertain efficacy, potential harm to beneficial arthropods, and cost.”

Authors: Samuel F. Turner, et al.
Affiliation: Washington State University Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
Title: Challenges and opportunities for organic hop production in the United States.
Publication: Agronomy Journal. 2011. 3(6):1645-54.