Farming Methods Quotes

I myself did not officially become organic until 1997, although I was always hopeless at using chemicals.

A sustainable agriculture is one which depletes neither the people nor the land.

If everybody switched to organic farming, we couldn't support the earth's current population - maybe half.

Natural farming is just farming, nothing more. You don't have to be a spiritually oriented person to practice my methods.

It is now 14 years since I first suggested that organic farming might have some benefits and ought to be taken seriously. I shall never forget the vehemence of the reaction.. much of it coming from the sort of people who regard agriculture as an industrial process, with production as the sole yardstick of success.

Central African farmers don't have any animal power because sleeping sickness kills all the animals - cattle, the horses, the burros and the mules. So draft animals don't exist, and farming is all by hand, and the hand tools are hoes and machetes.

Organic farming has been shown to provide major benefits for wildlife and the wider environment. The best that can be said about genetically engineered crops is that they will now be monitored to see how much damage they cause.

There's a lot of research that suggests that organic yields are close or superior to conventional yields depending on factors like climate. In a drought year an organic field of corn will yield more - considerably more - than a conventional field; organic fields hold moisture better so they don't need as much water. It simply isn't true that organic yields are lower than conventional yields.

The mode of clearing and planting is to fell the trees, and burn once what will burn, then cut them up into suitable lengths, rollinto heaps, and burn again; then, with a hoe, plant potatoes where you can come at the ground between the stumps and charred logs; for a first crop the ashes suffice for manure, and no hoeing being necessary the first year. In the fall, cut, roll, and burn again, and so on, till the land is cleared; and soon it is ready for grain, and to be laid down.

Philosophy of agriculture itself is changing, becoming systematized and mechanized…. Men of virtue and talents ... are bringing science to the aid of agriculture and introducing method and management to the dull monotony of a farmers life

Agricultural chemistry was not something that could be readily mastered by farmers, nor could the new machines be easily operated and maintained. Agricultural schools were needed to provide the necessary training. Then, if local gentry and rich households with large landholdings tried new methods—and if the new techniques were effective—the people will naturally follow them.

I haven't seen a tractor working all day. The country has gone sane and got back to horses. Farmers all look worse, but they feel better.

The thing about organic farming is that the produce will not look the same. Your tomato will not resemble the rich red one from the textbook, and that's the beauty of it.

We have to grow our food differently because industrial farming will soon end. That means growing more food locally on smaller farms with more human attention.