So what was that last post about?

[cultureofdoubt]

As typical spotted, the Government standards allow a number of insecticides including pyrethrins and rotenone. Pyrethrins come from chrysanthemums and rotenone from certain other plants

Comments

[evath]

I'm also not convince NPK is that bad from just thinking off the top of my head. It washing into streams obviously cause algee problems but some people recon it will end the world.

[evath]

"Synthetic N-P-K fertilizers do not replace the organic matter necessary to maintain the soil
biological diversity and activity needed to maintain disease suppression and desirable physical
properties of agricultural soils. The use of synthetic fertilizers and the absence of sound crop
rotation and cover cropping may encourage soil erosion and compaction, reduce the water-
and nutrient-holding capacities of soil, and result in poor growing conditions for crops,
leading to an increased susceptibility to both pests and pathogens. "

So crop rotation it is then. 99% of the google hits however relate to the fact it is also an explosive when used right, definately not scare mongers. Wow I managed to link farming to terrorism. Bush would be proud of me.

[sa_ra_ra_ra]

This is why my mum will not buy organic. My cousin was an organic lamb farmer for years, one of the biggest suppliers... and he got ill from organophosphates used in sheep dip (which were allowed then, not sure if they are now).

Given the amount of leeway given on this sort of thing, there's no real point in buying supermarket-organic as there's no huge difference. Soil Association is good, even better is a Hippy-Box organisation which you can question at length about their growing policies and guidelines. Not that i would do that :D