India's Rice (Potato and Wheat) Revolution
John Vidal - The Guardian
Organic Canadian potatoes. PLT photo
In a village in India's poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice, potatoes and wheat with no GM, and no herbicide. Is this one solution to world food shortages? Details here.
PLT: These breakthroughs need to be shouted from the rooftops. Do North American farmers even know about this? Here in my home province of Manitoba, Canada, commercial potato-growers spray their crops up to 5 times a season with potent fungicides. How healthy is that? Excellent story, John!
PLT: These breakthroughs need to be shouted from the rooftops. Do North American farmers even know about this? Here in my home province of Manitoba, Canada, commercial potato-growers spray their crops up to 5 times a season with potent fungicides. How healthy is that? Excellent story, John!
Comments
I've just received figures on this from ACORN, the Atlantic affiliate of Canadian Organic Growers. There were a grand total of 6 (SIX) farms growing organic potatoes in New Brunswick in 2010, on a total acreage of 17.3! Conventional potato farmers numbered 283, for a total acreage of 51,814. Perhaps you'd care to explain how a conventional industry on that scale coud possibly be threatened by the organic side, which, by my math, is outnumbered 3,000 times on the basis of acreage! I'd love to hear back from you but I'm not holding my breath!
Idiot-freak organic advocate.