Zen Honeycutt,
As I am typing this letter to you, I am watching a Food Documentary on Hulu that you are featured in. This documentary is about GMOs. As I watch all the opposing sides about the health risks or non risks of GMOs, I keep going back to my main question and known knowledge of gardening. How do you reduce pests, disease, and weeds. These three problems are the questions that companies like Monsanto, Dow Chemical and others are trying to solve.
Lets rewind and visit the past. Around 1900, the modernization of agriculture began. Now we have total proof that humans have been cultivating food way back to 20,000BC. Since 20,000BC until 1900, humans have been breeding and selecting viable grains, fruits and vegetable seed for their yield and viability. We call these foods, Heirloom. In 1900, humans began to leave their small gardens and urban farms to cultivate large parcels of land. Modern Mechanized Agriculture took over and the use of petroleum began on a large scale. Corn, Soy, Wheat and Rice are staples in ALL of HUMANITIES diets. To produce all the food required to feed the human population, farmers had to scale up dramatically. This posed a problem for farmers. When you go from garden or small urban farm, to hundreds of acres of land; it becomes impossible to weed, control pests or curve the spread of disease. How much human input would be needed to reduce or eliminate these three problems. The costs would be so great to the farmer, they would go out of business within one season. So they turn to companies like Monsanto and others for solutions.
Over the last year, I have ventured on a journey to become an urban farmer. I own about 10 acres of land and have been gardening for 20 years. I never thought to become an urban farmer until watching small scale urban farmers on YouTube. As I began my journey I concentrated my knowledge of growing on SOIL BUILDING. The ‘Back to Eden’ effect. Grow soil not vegetables. The better the soil, the larger the yields. Grow densely. More vegetables per square foot. One acre of land can produce five acres of produce. Imagine that. Producing five times the amount of food on one acre of land. This began to make me think about large scale farming. Why weren’t large farms doing the same? Well, lets look at the scale. 500 acres vs. 1 acre. The human input needed would be 250 times what I needed. That is expensive. A farmer would go out of business before the end of the first growing season. They would have to rely on mechanization. What about all the weeds? Can you imagine trying to weed 500 acres? Not possible. What about disease? Because almost ALL large scale farms grow almost only one crop, disease is a problem. Last but not least, the pests. When you have only one crop, pests become a problem as well. So what are the non-GMO, Organic and non-petroleum solutions?
DIVERSIFICATION. One word sums it all up. This one word solves ALL problems. Lets step back and really think about this one word. On my urban farm, I am growing a large variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers. I use a NO TILL approach. Lets stop there and analyze this. No till. I don’t have any mechanized equipment. I use mulch to grow the soil and prevent weeds. I don’t kill the soil by turning it over. When you till, you destroy the natural structures and biome of the soil. When you do this, you require fertilizers to enrich and give nutrients to the soil. That input costs money and can be poisonous to the human population. Plus, when you till the soil it helps to germinate weeds. Think about this point. Without tilling, no weeds would grow. Which means no chemical inputs to suppress the weeds or GMOs. I plant 43 different vegetables, herbs and flowers. I don’t just grow corn, soy, wheat or rice. I don’t have to worry about disease killing my whole crop. If tomatoes blight sets in, I remove the effected tomatoes and I still have other crops to sell. But these diseases wouldn’t really effect me, because I don’t grow my vegetables in the same soil every year. When you are a large farm and only grow one or very few crops, you have the worry of disease. I don’t. I rotate. Never planting the same crop in the same place every year. It takes about 5 years before tomatoes go back in that same spot. Pests. I interplant herbs and flowers with my crops. This helps to reduce or eliminate pest problems. Basil planted with tomatoes keeps hornworms from attacking. They hate the scent of Basil. Thus, no pesticides. No input, or cost to me. I can sell the Basil for a profit. Because of this one word, DIVERSIFICATION; I have shown that my input costs are next to nothing. This is the future of farming. I can farm successfully without GMOs or petroleum based inputs. I can maximize my profits by providing a diverse array of product.
I appreciate what you are doing for humanities health. You’re going in the right direction. But you’re forgetting a few things. Instead of fighting Monsanto, Dow Chemical and others. Educate farmers on DIVERSITY. Teach them to grow the soil, and densely plant their crops. Produce more food on smaller acreage. Teach the benefits of interplanting herbs, flowers and other vegetables together to stop the spread of pests and disease. These are the solutions to basic problems ALL farmers face. Why they haven’t discovered this is completely unknown to me.
I hope this letter finds you in good health and that you join me on this journey that is the future of agriculture. The worlds population is growing rapidly, and we have to feed these people with healthy food.
#nonGMO #urbanfarmer #noinputs #oklahomagardener #artisanheirloomfoods #petroleumfree #soilbuilding