Friday 28 October 2011

Farming

Did you know there are three basic methods of growing food? Conventional farming, organic farming and growing genetically modified crops. How much of your food is genetically modified? Do you buy organic? Conventional farming is neither organic nor GM; it is farming the way it's been done in Canada for a long time - using chemicals to kill weeds and saving seeds to replant the next year's crop. Proponents of genetic modification of plants say manipulating the plant's genes can result in better tasting fruit and vegetables, reduce maturation time and increase yields. Proponents of organic farming say the same thing. What attracts us to food in the grocery store? Are we willing to buy organic if it's not as perfect-looking as conventional food? Are we willing to pay more for organic food?
Tell us what you think about these three methods of growing food. What is used in your native country? Which one do you prefer? Support your opinion with some examples from your own background. You will have until Tuesday, November 1st to submit your comments.

11 comments:

  1. Hi everyone,
    It is Sunny. I grew up in the urban area in China. Actually I don’t real know about farming, I know nowadays more people are proponent organic food than other two kinds of methods of growing food. However, I agree with conventional farming, although conventional farming uses chemical products. In my opinion, organic food can’t fulfill and feed all population in the world, because it’s processes. If whole world uses organic farming, probably more people will suffer from starvation. However, if we assume that we focus on Canadian food market. I think more people prefer organic food when they afford it. Because of it good reputation, such as, natural growing, no use chemical products and good for health. In my home country China, farming method is conventional farming. As we know the Chinese population, we need more food to feed our people so conventional farming is the only choice. When I was young, in my Chinese text book had an article talked about hybrid rice, and a famous agricultural scientist Yuan Longping, he is the father of hybrid rice. “In China, hybrid rice is estimated to be planted on more than 50% of rice-growing land there and it is credited with helping the country increase its rice yields, which are among the highest within Asia.” This science is kind of genetically modified crops, but it was feed and saved human’s lives. Why we eat food, the basic demand is living. When we have good finical condition we can choose high quality, healthy food.

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  2. As far as I am concerned, nowadays, the living standard of the people have been improved, more and more people pay attention about their health and the quality of the foods. Many people are prefer the organic food, it is not only have more nutrition than conventional food, but also without chemicals such as non-fertilizers, non-pesticides. On the contrary, organic foods are cost more than conventionally grown food, we can see the grocery store, organic foods have more higher prices than other foods. But I think more people are care about their health rather than pay the less money to buy the harmful foods. In my country, as we know, China have biggest population in the world. Therefore, organic food don't have enough supply to satisfied people's need. Because grow the organic food need to take long process and also cost more effort. Most of foods are come from conventional farm. In my hometown, my mother usually plant organic food by herself, she always told me that she did not trust the vegetables and fruits in the markets. She said if we always eat the conventional food, we can image it that how damage to our health. Also, I think the genetically-modified foods is better than conventional foods. First, genetically-modified foods is commonly use biology techniques to grown the foods quickly, it can satisfied the large population booming. Second, it can help eliminates many chemical pesticides damage to human body and also reduce the cost. Thirdly, genetically-modified foods can resistance to diseases such as viruses, bacteria and fungi. Because the genetically-modified plants are create by biologists, they are working to resistance to these diseases and also genetically-modified foods can stand against long periods of drought. It can possible to solve many people who have suffered the starving and malnutrition problems.

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  3. I have a little knowledge about the agricultures. I prefer to the organic food, but they are expensive than the conventional food. For example, the organic cherry is $6.99/LP and the conventional cherry is $2.99/LP. Not everybody can afford the organic food. Most people in the grocery store will chose the conventional food. I also know that the productivity of organic form is low. So I agree with Sunny. The most important thing in developing country is to feed the population. I got a new today that there are 7 billion people on our planet. How can we get enough food for the residents? What is the best way to get rid of starvation? I think nobody has the answer. Proponents of genetic modification of plants say they have gotten the idea. However, I don’t think the genetic modification of plants is a good method. We need a long time to verify the consequence of GM food. It probably needs hundreds years. Nowadays, there are lots of GM food in China and Canada. Actually, lots of people can’t distinguish the GM food with the conventional food. I think the producer of the food should label the GM food that the consumers can have a right to chose. GM food is not Satan, but we need to be aware of its consequence.

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  4. A report released by the United Nations states that the world population could hit 15 billion by the end of the century. How to feed a huge world’s population? Especially the food supplies are not available. Therefore, the way of producing efficient and healthy food is urgent. Conventional agriculture has been playing the most important role on feeding a huge population in China for years. I grew up in a small village in China and I have witnessed that how conventional farming makes people’s lives better and more stable. In my childhood, my memory was full of corn flour, soybeans, sweet potato. At that time, having sufficient wheat flour and rice were a dream for a family. However, things changed step by step when people adopted the conventional farming method. Even though there are some negative effects such as tasteless food and unsustainable soil, it cannot cover the fact that it has relieved the food crisis in China. Growing genetically modified crops is becoming popular in my hometown. It might be an effective method to meet the growing need. For instance, in recent years, many family farmers are enjoying the genetically modified crops such as soybeans, corns, especially cotton due to its fewer pest problems and better yields. What is more, the formers are emancipated from the land. Although the GM crops can bring economic and environmental benefits for people, it causes many debates around the safety of GM food and Chinese food security because U.S. controls the seed and GM technology. On the contrary, nowadays, the organic food is attracting more and more people to take out their hard-earned cash for what they believe are the best food (I am one of them). However, organic farming as a small-scale method of growing food is hard to solve the urgent need for food; even it is not reality in some developing countries.

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  5. Now, I do not buy organic food because it is a little expensive and my budget is supported by my parents in Korea so I need to save money^^;;;. However, when I can get a job in Canada, I would like to buy local or organic food produced by local farmers even if fruit and vegetables are not attractive. It is more beneficial to encourage people to buy local food. I have a negative view about GM crops. In Korea, many companies try to advertise their products with no GM crops. Korean people think that genetically modified crops can have a unpredictable and negative effect on our health, but we cannot identify whether foods such as tofu and cereals are including GM crops or not. That's why some people choose organic foods regardless of prices or unattractive appearance. We enjoy eating foods because of taste. On the other hand, foods can be more meaningful in our lives, which mean foods make people survive and our lives more healthy, moreover, cure serious diseases. Therefore, we need to buy organic foods instead of GM crops unless you are under pressure because of money.

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  6. A growing number of people are converted to consuming organic production, to our astonishment and disappointment, many of them do not even know what organically grown means. They believe that organic food is either safer or more nutritious compared to conventional food, because organic farming utilizes natural techniques to grow food. There is not conclusive evidence that organic food is healthier than conventional food. However there indeed exist some differences between these two sorts of agricultures. Conventional farming do more harm to environment, a lot of manufactured pesticides and fertilizers are used in conventional farming, pesticide residues will threaten people's health and have a adverse influence on ecosystem. For example, the rural village where I grew up take the small-scale farming policy, farmer usually sprayed pesticide in the small field, which would result in serious disaster to those organisms who lived in this field. To make matter worse, those creature might be killed. Conventional farming is less sustainable than organic agriculture. An important technique used in organic farming is crop rotation which means different crops can be plants in different seasons. For instance, you can plant rice in summer, and grow rape in winter in the same field. Organic crops can survive better in severe condition such as drought, hurricane, which can be imported to those countries that have a lot of disasters. However, production of conventional farming is much larger than organic farming, especially on the condition that modified engineered seeds are used. There is a fabulous amount of population in China, it can be imagined how hard for the countries to feed this large. China made it, Yuan Longping " the father of Hybrid rice" made it. The modified engineered seeds invited by Yuan and conventional farming methods are commonly taken advantage of by Chinese farmers. As a result, the output of the food are exactly equal to the consumption. Besides, conventional food are much cheaper compared with organic food which has lower expenditure on pesticide, fertilizer and energy. So organic is more beneficial to the farmers rather than consumers. As far as I am concerned, I encountered the hardship working in a small field and bending over whole day, I also experienced that I must go to vegetable yard to pick up vegetables preparing meals for my parents and grandpa who were working in the field, the food we ate were purely came from our hand, regardless to whether main food or other kinds of sneaks. That is what we call organic food, i have not recognized what i ate when i was a kid were organically grown, due to lack of definition of organic food, I guess my grandparents who are still doing farming can not differentiate the organic and conventional food. I love organic food which has brought me healthy body, and unforgettable experience which actually was my childhood. Urban people virtually can not imagine how hard it is to work outside facing severe sunshine in the temperature of 35~39. So we should salute to farmers who provide us food, we should despise food even though you do not like it.

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  7. Conventional farming is very much popular in my country. We preserve seeds from our crop to next year crop. It is friendly twoards farmer especially small farmer. Seeds always play a big role to grow crop. On the other hand, GM food is needed to have more food in order to mitigate our growing food shortage. The main problem with this food is we have to buy seeds for every year. It is not possisible for small farmer to buy it each year. Moreover, if the weather or soil do not allow farmer to use GM seeds for a particular seassion, farmer will loose everything. Organic food is most costly. Because of its high price, it is not viable for general people. It is unethical that if I have money, I can afford this basic food. I alwaya prefer conventional farming food. It has alredy made one kind of green revolution in our country and I used to see it from my boyhood. It does not bring any health related issue in our country. To me, Organic food is a romantic one. How can I prove the organic food is really produced by an organic farm when I purchase it from super market?

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  8. As I mentioned in the blog last week, I was not a critical thinking person. When I go to grocery store, I usually buy foods that look petty and have cheaper prices. I had no idea about these three methods of growing food before, until I did some research. During my studying, I find out that Conventional farming, organic farming and genetically modified food are totally different. They all have some advantages and disadvantages. For instance, organic food do not use chemical fertilizer which is good for environment, but organic foods are far not enough to feed the earth since the output of organic food is lower than other two methods of growing food. Conventional farming allows chemical pesticides, which make crops grow much faster than normal, but in the meantime it can be toxic to humans and wildlife. According to statistics, the world population has topped 6 billion people and will be double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. Genetically modified food is able to meet this need. But lots of scientists concerned that genetically modified food are harmful for people’s health. In China, about 50-60 years ago, all farmers used organic way to produce foods. As population increased and agriculture technology developed, conventional farming took over organic farming. Near these 10 years, genetically modified foods are popular in market. In my personal opinion, I prefer all natural things, including of food. I think organic foods are the best.

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  9. In my opinion, conventional farming is a very good way to grow food. And in reality, until today, there's no evidence that organic food is better, safer and healthier than conventional farming. However, people prefer Organic foods because they think it's original and are free from any form of chemicals.

    When I was in Indonesia, my uncle planted organic garlic. When he wanted to sell it to the market, they did not accept it because of its size. The organic garlic form is smaller than the conventional garlic. Maybe if my uncle packed the organic garlic into beautiful packages and is written on it "organic garlic" probably many people would be interested to buy it. Also the rice plantations need to use chemicals, such as pesticides and fertilizers, to make good quality and quantity of rice. If they do not use such chemicals, the rice would seem bad and the product is going to be less than conventional farming. I knew that chemical is harmful for human body. It's a dilemma. In one side, conventional farming improves the production of food, and on the other side, people might be eating some chemicals. Some tips of how to reduce the effects of chemical is to wash the food under cold, running water properly and to peel the fruits or cook it.

    Growing genetically modified crop is not very common in my home country. And I don't know if it is good or bad. It depends on what do they genetically modified the crop with.

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  10. To be honest I did not know that GM farming is a special kind of farming and it has its own name but if to think about that it has to be. GM farming reminds me children playing with matches because we really do not know the possible long time effects of GM products. Although people are used to combine different species for hundreds or thousands of years, they never went so far as they do nowadays. Combining plants and animals genes could have some effects later one but at this time we do not know them. In contrast to this method organic farming suppose to use only natural methods and seeds and it is supposed to be the best way for farming. However, I do not think that it can face the increased demand in food because as far as I know it require larger fields and more work and consequently higher prices that not too many can afford . Although it is criticized by many, conventional farming can be the solution. The main concern in this case is to not overuse the chemicals and to reduce the impact on the soil. In Moldova conventional farming is mostly used on large surfaces but small farmers and family fields are mainly organic. From my experience I know that growing organic it is very difficult, especially in absence of machineries because it requires a lot of manual work and it is very dependable on the weather. As a result, it is very difficult to have enough food to feed your family and even more difficult to get profit from it. To sum up, I think that, smart conventional farming is a good way to follow.

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  11. In my country we have conventional farming and small farms where people work without using machines.
    From my childhood I can remember that we used to go every week to the village and help my grandparents farm
    in the small farm. To be honest, I’ve never heard about organic food in Ukraine. Just before coming to Canada
    I read an article in
    the journal about organic food. There mentioned that organic food is very known in Canada. My son has food
    allergies since he was born. I was always suspicious about his diet. Here, in Canada, I sometimes buy organic food.
    For instance, bananas, and some other types of fruits, theres not much of a price difference. I know that some organizations support GMO products, however, I’m against it.

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