The Skeptics Guide #853 - Nov 13 2021 (Ad Free)
Added 2021-11-13 16:52:26 +0000 UTCCOVID Update: New Antivirals; News Items: Moon Return Delay, Brain Stimulation Treatment, Carbon to Rock, Astronaut Brain Damage; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Organic Farming; Science or Fiction
Comments
Crop rotation, plowing particular crops back into the soil, and leaving a field fallow are part of conventional farming and not limited to organic farming. Everything that organic farming does has been borrowed from conventional farming. Like Quakers, they stop at a certain point of progress and declare, "This is the best." South America is hardly representative of farming the world over, and is more an indication of national structural issues. As lucrative as cocaine is and for as long as the drug problem has lasted, one would imagine that the Columbian drug lords would have run out of land by now. Columbia has 6.02 million hectares of arable land, and drug lords used 245,000 hectares in 2020. That's 75 years if they move every few years, but I wouldn't imagine they'd stay in an area for more than one crop, leaving 25 years left of usage before they have to rotate to used land. Also, this ignores the decades of use prior to 2020, as well as all the other food crops being produced. I suspect it's a percentage of smaller farmers that are not fertilizing land rather than being a wide-spread problem.
Asymetra
2022-10-30 20:42:08 +0000 UTCThere is one organic method you overlooked that I think needs to be done more, and that is crop rotation. Talk about the validity of that the next time you discuss organic methods. Of course, just because one organic method is a good idea, that does not mean they all are. BTW, there ARE farmers who will destroy their soil. For example, there are some in South America that destroy rainforest for a few years of agricultural production, after which the soil is useless. Or, is this another myth?
Ted Apelt
2021-11-14 08:32:28 +0000 UTCOh, a longer more serious indepth treatment of it. 25 minutes and I hope you can get it outside of Australia https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sciencefriction/cop-26-climate-carbon-capture-storage/13618462
Jess Donovan
2021-11-14 05:28:23 +0000 UTCRe: CCS. It is important to note that, while the Iceland plant is encouraging, CCS has been held out as an excuse for inaction for decades. Here is a humorous 4 minute take on it, but it is also shockingly accurate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSZgoFyuHC8
Jess Donovan
2021-11-14 05:11:40 +0000 UTC
