I regularly stay on a friends farm which went organic about 17 years ago.We love it there. But we get to come home and don't endure the all year round issues they have running it.Big problems are now manifesting and they may have to revert to modern conventional practices.Growing organic produces lower yields that diminish each year. This is the basic problem of 'soil clean' arable land needing to fallow for much longer leaving large areas unproductive for increasing periods of time.The produce is also far more short seasonal and does not keep fresh for long enough for wide distribution reducing the market options.Organic produce is very vulnerable to disease, wildlife and weather patterns, which in these islands is never constant one year to the next.At the end of the day, farming is a business, it's easy to look at it as idyllic but it is extremely hard work and could fail in a very short time from the force of mother nature. They have some hard decisions to make having been committed to organic farming for a long time now, but it is a reminder of how population demand is outstripping the ability to produce without having to resort to chemicals and other growing means of questionable provenance.
Raymond Havelock ● 1994d