As I promissed all of you I went on the search for
"ORGANIC HAY"
BUT this was not an easy task and the results are not very satisfying, maybe even questionable.
Even though organic hay prices tend to be higher than hay that isn’t organic, there is still a very high demand for it. In fact, demand is so high that it is difficult for producers to keep up. Currently, the demand is about 20 percent higher than the supply. This is great news for anyone considering the addition of organic hay to their farm’s crops.
So during my research I came across articles about farming operations growing forage on 100's of acres in order to meeet demands for organic hay. Experts talking about how wonderfull this is for farmers, because it was another way of generating income.
Some of you might remember my post about organic farming. I talked about the carbon footprint being lots higher in organic farming then in traditional farming. On top of that the tendency of american farmers towards large scale farming -no matter what- adds other problems.
We are talking about monocultures, soil compaction, erosion.....
Another phenomenom results out of the regulations of USDA for organic farming:
Under USDA rules, fields must be chemical-free for at least three years to qualify for organic certification.
The intension is good, but farmers are smart !!! Whenever there seems to be a problem with weeds due to monocultures of ALFAFA eg. farmers go ahead and take that field out of production. Once out of production regular pestizides come into use and after three years the field is brought back into production.
So it is with a heavy heart and a very doubtfull mind, I am posting a view links were one might be able to find Organic Hay.
However I do believe in the creation of regional networks.
So pls, before you go shopping elsewhere for organic hay produced under questionable circumstances, try your farmer next door :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment