How long can an organic farm really stay organic with the owners have zero control over ...?

Question

- the surrounding land
- the atmosphere
- external waterways that affect the organic farm

With things like GM crops already in the wild and widespread monoculture, how does a small farm fight this off?

By the way, I'm asking for actual farming techniques, not legislative wishes. Hoping for legislation is a bit too pie-in-the-sky and doesn't help me today.

Answer 1

I would not think very long ...

Answer 2

It depends on how you define organic. If the farmer just plants natural seed and does not use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides, then I say it is still organic even if pollution encroaches on the Farm.

Answer 3

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND ,BUT YOU CAN GET VERY CLOSE

and you are right the outside world will affect your operation ,but there is a lot you can do to isolate your self from the outside world


people are doing this all over the place on a small scale with a walled garden
but you can do this for any size
and will control the quality of soil 100 %
by building it yourself

its called a Parea daiza .our word for Paradise came from that and it means a walled garden .
the Taj Mahal was the tea house in one of them
the city of Delhi used to be one ,and the most Famous were build by Prince Babur ,and Kublai Kahn

some of them were hundreds of square kilometers and included woods for hunting
the whole surounded by a huge wall and with an individual Environment with in almost completely shut of from the outside world

now i am not saying that you should get 2000 laborors and build a 500 kilometer wall 8 metres high,

but you can copy the principle and close you farm of by planting a circumferance of trees,smaller bush in front of that ,and shrubs to end up with a completely closed surrounding,

WATERHARVESTING
and very important a deep ditch (tractor)in front of this organic wall that goes all the way around the property ,if the land is lower ,than this is the place for a dam or a pond

so that all of the water that falls on you place cannot leave it
this is called zero run off.

1/3 should be water of some form ,Damns ,ponds ,cannals ,reservoirs etc all inter connected ,to the outside

lead cannals into the property by stealing water from the outside .connect them to a road side gutter for example ,and water flows that you can reach
adding to you water quantity that does not directly falls on your land

EARTH WORKS

in permaculture 90% of the intense work is at the start ,by shaping the land to make it receptive to incoming humidity and retaining it ,make the dams cannals ,roads ,places for buildings ,

Roads
make the roads high and dry and Hard, make them first ,(you will already have most of them )gutters on both sides that connect to the network of cannals that you end up with ,

do all of this first and then you devellop the resulting compartments individually ,with time
this is the blue print of the whole land design

MULCH
all your plots should be low and soft (compost)covered in mulch
to prevent evaporation,encourage the devellopment of worms,prevent wind and water erosian(this already is ellimiated if the plots are all low)and stops the impact of rain ,apart from that it results in compost as you no doubt already know

you can plant for green mulch around the edges so that you got some close at hand


PRINCIPLES AND RULES
you should be disaplined about this
since they direct you in to progression

produce your own compost

plant diverse ,,and think cubic ,utilising all space
,eg.use trees as poles for vines ,plant small stuff under big stuff

utilise all resource,eg Rocks should be working ,not laying around for walls ,edges ,etc
i use rocks in places wher my irregation does not reach for planting trees ,the condensation of a little wall of rocks 1 meter high is enough to keep a sappling going

harvest water to zero run of

follow energy flows and design accordingly,eg.the rain water from the roof goes in a surrounding drain onto and through the chicken house cleaning it and deposting the compost rich water onto the vegetable plots .

put chicken houses or pigpens on edges of ponds to suppliment fish food

get silkies or bantam chickens,to control 70% of walking or hopping pests.

PERMACULTURE
Permaculture means permanent agriculture
a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s

the Permaculture designers manual by Bil Mollison cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])

With practical solutions for energy systems ,infratructure ,housing,
animal shelter ,water systems and sustainable agricultural practises.
With the world and it`s history as it`s source
From the chinampas of Mexico to the teraced gardens of the Andes.
From the dessert whadis to the steppes of Russia.
Covering all climatic conditions temporal, dessert, humid and dry tropics.
with chapters on soil ,Water harvesting and land design,
Earth working ,Spirals in nature,Trees and water ,utilising energy flows,
Strategy for an alternative nation

this book also has many gardening tips,bio-gas,companion planting and ideas for structures ,how to cool down houses in hot climates ,how to warm up houses in cold climates with out using technology but rather by design.

always aiming at autosuficiency and sustainability . Source(s) some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]
[e-mail]
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...

I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology in Atoyac, Guerrero