I was telling my mother again about the microbes that live in soil, because really, who does not enjoy chatting on the phone about the germs that live in dirt? Microbes help plants draw nutrition they need from the soil and they protect plants from disease, I said. When those microbes are dead, then the plants growing in that soil need a lot of chemicals because their natural way of going about things doesn’t work so well anymore. That is why it takes so long to transition from conventional to organic agriculture. The soil has to heal, and the microbes have to come back before the plants can thrive.
In the interest of a balanced argument, my mom interjected, “Certainly, when people started using these chemicals they thought it was a good idea.”
“Oh yes!” I answered. “Many of them still think it is a very good idea!” I launched into the controversy about whether organic agriculture can produce enough food to feed the world. A lot of us believe that it can. Research that came out of the University of Michigan in 2007 suggests that in developed countries, intensive organic agriculture can produce about as much food as conventional agriculture, but in developing countries, it can produce up to three times as much food. “A lot of people disagree,” I continued. “They are concerned that widespread use of organic agriculture could result in mass starvation.”
There was a pause of the other end of the phone line. “What did you say?” Mom asked. I repeated myself, and Mom was relieved. She heard me say people worry that organic agriculture could result in masturbation.
Hilarious!!!
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