.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
(crickets chirping)

Gotta attack organic agriculture for being less than perfect, eh?

Who was comparing anything in this study?

of us will even die eventually!

But I feel a lot better since I started eating organically.

How you live is all that matters.

However, your post has nothing to do with this study.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]If drip irrigation is so much better, then they can liquify the composted manure and provide it to crops via drip irrigation. No "artifical" chemical fertilizers, fully organic, saves water, and spares the groundwater.

Ta-da!

As a matter of fact, I'm going to be trying a similar experiment this season with compost tea from my worm bin via drip line to container plants. We are under severe drought restrictions and it's only going to get worse, and this will make the best possible use of every precious drop.

Composted manure, it will be able to do better with less water, as the manure components keep the ground moister.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]We'll see how it goes!

in my area do, and have been doing for the past decade or so. Compost teas through the drip system.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I have a very restricted planting area, mostly along a fence where there's limited sunshine, but I'll be trying it out this year.

Any preplant fertilizer, organic or conventional chemical will have the same issue (organic less so than conventional, actually). But fertigating through the drip line when the plant needs it is the way to go and most organic farmers in the irrigated west use this technique. But use liquid organic fertilizers -or compost teas as they are often called- through the drip system.

To be sound they would need to compare preplant organic vs preplant conventional chemical and then compare fertigating with either organic or conventional chemically derived fertilizers. Then it could be evaluated properly.

But the study is quite solid. More studies may be needed, but you can't dismiss it just because.

It diminishes the credibility of that publication.

And you cannot see the problem? Are you serious?

and poison shallow wells rather quickly. That's why wise gardeners don't do sheet composting but rather mix the waste with leaf litter and grass clippings and compost it on down to ultra rich soil. Used as a side dressing to half grown plants it makes them rocket up toward the sun while not polluting the ground water.

They've also run into problems doing sheet composting of non composted waste by having produce contaminated by fecal bacteria.. Not good.

Farmers just need to change methods and timing.

it's bizarre.

leaving room to skew studies if one wishes. Would have a look at natural nitrates versus chemical as well. Study was also done on a coastal aquifer with groundwater levels pushing the extremes, not the norm. Confession: growing vegetables for years with organic methods; lot of work but damn I'm healthy.

"under intensive organic farming"



There is nothing magic about the word organic.

Sustainable agriculture is the goal.