There was a post on Rodale.com on rodent control and how it was effecting barn owls. Even though this post wasn’t specifically about gardening, it can certainly be related to why organic gardening makes sense.
Here’s an excerpt from the post:
Other studies have found these dangerous chemicals building up in the bodies of herbivorous animals like squirrels and deer. Scientists aren’t sure why they’re building up in herbivores, but the evidence suggests that the chemicals are extremely persistent in the environment and do damage far beyond the rats and mice they’re intended to kill.
This is part of a larger problem. We see a problem and we attempt to fix that problem. The whole picture isn’t looked at. Rodents are the problem and we do something to get rid of them.
Often a spray, toxic chemical or something else is used. We don’t think or see how it effects everything else. There are other animals that interact with that rodent afterwards that become effected.
It goes beyond just effecting the “problem” (rodent). The entire eco-system becomes disturbed and a trickle down effect occurs.
This happens once you start to use sprays and chemicals. This is why organic methods make sense because they take the entire eco-system into consideration and works within it. Whether it’s through using beneficial insects, non-toxic sprays or another method, it’s more sustainable for everyone and thing involved.
You might get rid of one problem, but you start to create others such as with the owls mentioned in that post.
What are your thoughts and methods you use?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ncUzs367w
Good post. Agree with everything you have said. Another reason for me to be organic is because I have two young boys who like to play in the garden. Sometimes they help, and sometimes they destroy stuff on accident 🙂 Anyway, I don’t want my kids hanging out in an environment filled with chemicals that kill things. Just my thoughts.
That’s another great reason. Def wouldn’t want the kids playing in that.
Very good example. I don’t like the idea of using chemicals and poisons to solve all the challenges of growing food. I’m not even completely comfortable with some organic solutions like BT. I don’t use any pesticides besides a little soap and little baking soda. I’m trying to learn how to position my plants so I don’t need them. I use the scents of strong herbs like mint to deter aphids and mites, and found that my tall fountain grasses around leafy greens shield them from butterflies and moths that would lay caterpillar eggs (but doesn’t slow the bees). I’m trying to inter-space other edibles with plants that pests don’t go for, hoping to confuse them.
For now I’ve completely switched over to organic fertilizers like fish emulsion and liquid seaweed (and some manure tea someone gave me 😉 I had to. See, I have a few solar lights I put in some of my pots, didn’t realize there was a soil spike reversed and tucked into the end of it. I stupidly just pushed the shaft into the soil. Months later I took them out to rearrange things and found blue and white salt build up all over the part that had been in the soil. It was from the liquid chemical fertilizer I’d been using. That was in the dirt with my food and that ain’t right. Look at the labelling on that stuff, if you accidentally ingest you’re supposed to contact poison control and seek immediately medical treatment. And yet they want me to put that into the food I’m going to eat…. No, no, not anymore. The fish emulsion may be stinky for a day, but I can deal with that alot better than stuff that looks like nuclear waste.
Nice. Yea to me ‘organic’ means more than the label and what it’s become. Organic doesn’t necessarily mean good. It just means of carbon or something like that.
Definitely interested to hear how all of your experiments go. Have you checked out that Carrots Love Tomatoes book yet?
No, I haven’t read that book. I have found a few plant companion tables
online that I’ve been using and also experimenting on my own.
The best help really has been grouping pest-prone plants and non pest-prone
plants. And using my fountain grass as an umbrella-type shield. Somewhere I
read an article about certain pests testing out new areas they come into by
making test landings – they fly up and land several times in a small area
and if they don’t have a high percentage of landings on suitable plants they
decide that area doesn’t have enough resources for their offspring and move
on. I think I found it through on of Greensparrow’s links.
my whole thought on this is that people tend to become to AMERICANIZED in their thought processes “I WANT IT BIGGER I WANT IT BETTER AND I WANT IT NOW” people tend to look at the smaller pic instead of the bigger for example building muscle : theres a video on youtube of a guy thats been working out for 2 and he like the rockies just big in certain area but and under developed in other you can clearly see he used steroids because of how uneven he is. on the flip side there was a guy that was smaller but had been working out longer but has more even balanced body and more rounded muscle and looks a hell of a lot better…. getting back on subject we need to quit using steroids on our crops its making our leaves look lop sided and our nutrition unbalanced im all for using NPK but only as a supplement to replace whats been taken from the ground remember THE CIRCLE OF LIFE song you should never take more than you give
Great analogy. Concept holds true for so many aspects of our lives.