how long before we're all organic?

[Agrispeed]

Thanks for the update. Sounds exciting.

Do you know what your CO2 equivalent balance is? Are you completely negating the effect of all that methane the girls burp out?

that figure is inclusive of all emissions, including ammonia, cultivations and diesel etc.

Its quite in depth, from the establishment of cereals providing straw to fuel used in the pickup.

 

[Karliboy]

Public money for public goods us where it’s going

This little survey has been put together to help with the basis of what will be the new ELM And What do people want and think of about the countryside at the moment.

Here is a small survey that anyone can fill in. I’m guessing if people look hard enough there will be other info on the net to maybe help prepare farmers for the future before it even happens

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SouthPennines

Myself I’d rather do without subs take a step back farm in a sustainable way and find a market for my product that I’m happy with

 

[farmerm]

Of course all British Farmers should be made to be organic, as a wealthy nation we can afford to export all our polluting activities, things like food production, all manufacturing and storage of nuclear waste. We can solve all our 1st world problems but making them 3rd world problems...

 

[bitwrx]

that figure is inclusive of all emissions, including ammonia, cultivations and diesel etc.

Its quite in depth, from the establishment of cereals providing straw to fuel used in the pickup.

So your kg/l figure is net of emissions? So to get the total net carbon capture, I just have to multiply the kg/l figure by the number of litres produced?

Any idea how you'd fare without your on-farm renewables?

 

[bitwrx]

Of course all British Farmers should be made to be organic, as a wealthy nation we can afford to export all our polluting activities, things like food production, all manufacturing and storage of nuclear waste. We can solve all our 1st world problems but making them 3rd world problems...

Actually, nuclear waste is one thing we can't export. No country can. Against all kinds of multinational treaties. It can be sent abroad to be reprocessed, but the reprocessed material has to be returned from whence it came.

In fact, the UK is one of the world's foremost nuclear waste reprocessing nations. Keeps a lot of people employed in West Cumbria.

ETA - that doesn't mean we've sorted our own long term waste storage issues. We haven't. One of governments ongoing lamentable failures...

 

[glasshouse]

The real question is, how long can land degeneration continue before something goes bang

You can be regenerative degenerative organic or non-organic , holistic altruistic or sopsolistic - I really can't see you "all" being anything, as there is an obvious surplus of farmers and only so much money to go around.

Rubbish
Organic farming requires a lot more farmers
You cant manage 5000 acres with two men and a student
Boots on the ground!!!!

 

[neilo]

Think of how much less stressful it would be on windy spring days!

It’s a good job the wind generally drops when it gets dark.

 

[benny6910]

Organic fields of blackgrass will be very popular then, maybe vegans will use it as a salad garnish.

 

[glasshouse]

It would be great to call the publics bluff and all go organic

 

[glasshouse]

Considering a surprising number of farmers don’t approve of the NFU, what makes you think they would all follow Guys lead should he make such a call?

The call would be enough to cause panic

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Rubbish
Organic farming requires a lot more farmers
You cant manage 5000 acres with two men and a student
Boots on the ground!!!!

What's the spare guy and the student doing?

 

[farmerm]

It would be great to call the publics bluff and all go organic

and what will that get us except weedy fields and crops ravaged with every disease under the sun, public will just import more... If we all tried to grow untreated cereals there would be so much disease inoculum present no crop would make it to harvest!

 

[Scribus]

Actually, nuclear waste is one thing we can't export. No country can. Against all kinds of multinational treaties. It can be sent abroad to be reprocessed, but the reprocessed material has to be returned from whence it came.

In fact, the UK is one of the world's foremost nuclear waste reprocessing nations. Keeps a lot of people employed in West Cumbria.

ETA - that doesn't mean we've sorted our own long term waste storage issues. We haven't. One of governments ongoing lamentable failures...

Molton salt reactors run on nuclear waste -

MSRs can be designed to burn (convert to energy) spent nuclear fuel and weapons-related materials and not produce nuclear materials with proliferation risks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor

 

[glasshouse]

and what will that get us except weedy fields and crops ravaged with every disease under the sun, public will just import more... If we all tried to grow untreated cereals there would be so much disease inoculum present no crop would make it to harvest!

Thats pure rubbish
In twenty yrs of organic farming, i never had any serious disease issues
Nitrogen fert weakens the plant cells and lets disease in , and makes it more edible for slugs

 

[bobk]

Thats pure rubbish
In twenty yrs of organic farming, i never had any serious disease issues
Nitrogen fert weakens the plant cells and lets disease in , and makes it more edible for slugs

They probably died of starvation looking for summat to eat .

 

[FonterraFarmer]

No such thing as organic, IMO. The land needs fed to be able to produce... depends how much the 'public' really want to pay for their ideology

Remember that "organic" excludes what happens during the hours of darkness. ......

 

[FonterraFarmer]

As a long standing member of Friends of the Earth I have no problem with Tony Juniper. The agricultural industry - through the NFU - should be using his past to your advantage, by lobbying him hard on the environmental benefits of reduced food miles, ie UK produce.

Food miles was proven to be a myth when the reality of some products actually having less overall environmental impact from imported products from the other side of the world compared to local.
Food km's tends to be worse than mIles as they are higher numerically

 

[delilah]

I know it's the whole point of the internet, but my god you lot can pick a fight in an empty room can't you.

What announcement has Tony Juniper made about the UK going organic since being made head of NE ?

Pretty much every single member of TFF would see their business benefit from an increased emphasis on self sufficiency in food production. Tony Juniper, as an environmentalist, will be an open door to that argument, as it would mean less pollution, congestion, packaging etc etc. How about you all start pushing at that door instead of arguing amongst yourselves about organics ?

 

[delilah]

some products

can we have a list ?

 

[bitwrx]

Molton salt reactors run on nuclear waste -

MSRs can be designed to burn (convert to energy) spent nuclear fuel and weapons-related materials and not produce nuclear materials with proliferation risks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor

MSRs are great in theory. Unfortunately the 'salt' bit does rather challenge conventional material technologies (i.e. metal). Even the most passive metals are prone to corrosion in the presence of heat, stresss and salt. Bear in mind, you need a helluva temperature to melt salt.

They really are great in theory tho - get rid of the plute, and reduce the storage time requirement for all the other gubbins by orders of magnitude. Just need a few of the fundamentals worked out. Bit like fusion really.