Summary of Counter-Arguments:
| - Very few farmers revert back to conventional farming after having converted to organic farming; this demonstrates that, overall, it makes them happier and results in an improved lifestyle. - Organic Agriculture is also knowledge-intensive. When well-practiced, it reduces the amount of work spent on the agricultural practices themselves, as the farmer spends more time inquiring about and understanding how to best manage his agroecosystem. |
Details of Counter-Arguments:
It is true that converting to organic farming will not instantly solve all your problems as a farmer. However, there are very few farmers who revert back to conventional farming after having converted to organic farming, yet the transition would be far easier in this direction (organic to conventional) than it was from conventional to organic because of conversion period requirements. This demonstrates that, overall, organic farmers are happy with their situation, that they can make a living from it, and that they find the advantages it brings more important than the disadvantages (otherwise they would revert to conventional farming). While it is true that in several cases organic farming requires additional manual work on the farm, the advantages include the following:
- Meaningfulness of the everyday work as the farmers feels confident that he is producing good, healthy food without compromising the environment.
- Reduced exposure to pesticides and other chemicals (in developing countries this is particularly important since there are approximately three million cases of pesticide poisoning every year).
- A more appealing and diversified farm/work environment, which also enables many organic farmers (in the north) to diversify even further their activities through eco-tourism or educational activities.
- An improved and secured income through premium prices and reduced dependency on credit and other financial “ties.” Using their increased income, farmers can address the problem of workload by recruiting more people to work on the farm.
Organic farming also does not necessarily mean spending hours on hand weeding. In developed countries, hand weeding is used mainly by vegetable growers, while for most other production systems (such as those for livestock, cereals, trees and other major crops) weeding is mechanized so there is no increased physical burden on farmers due to organic practices. In fact, well-practiced, organic farming reduces the overall amount of time spent on the agricultural practices themselves; Organic Agriculture labor requirements can be greatly reduced through improved knowledge. This means that the best organic farmer is not the one who spends the longest hours doing mechanical or hand weeding, but rather the one who takes the time to inquire about and understand how he can best manage his agroecosystem so as to reduce the amount of agricultural work. Even for vegetable growing, there are several techniques that can be used to reduce the need for hand-weeding and other hard work substantially (year-round mulching is a typical example). These techniques are also applicable in backyard gardens [1], where many people farm organically with ease and pleasure.
[1] See “Gardening without Work for the Aging,” from Ruth Stout for more details.