http://permaculture.org.au/2009/05/13/monsanto-invents-the-pig/

See: http://permaculture.org.au/2008/09/18/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

Monsanto understand profits really well, and their view of the world is neatly packaged and sold as an easy way to make huge profits. And it’s easy enough to fake a few studies to make it look real enough to sell the view to foolish governments (with a golden handshake to sweeten the deal) and farmers.

However, as anyone who has worked the soil can tell you, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You must build great soil to get great yields. Working with – instead of against – nature is the only way to get permanent great returns.

We’re living on a small permaculture farm in New Zealand, and are finding that the more we diversify, the easier the workload and the better the returns. Our yields increase, our workload decreases, just by working with nature and using our brains.

If only Monsanto would do the same, what a powerful force for good they could be.

And I would like to say to anyone who works for Monsanto directly that you really need to look at the facts and seriously consider what you are a part of. If you don´t want to and only care about your fancy car and house, well, I rest assured that if things continue as they are, aka ‘your way’ you will be some of the first to go when the SHTF.

She has been tireless in convincing farmers to stop using patented “terminator” seeds and go back to using local open pollinated heirloom seeds.

The speech is here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3833110324043445440#

If people think fertility comes out of a factory bag written, N, C, K, P complete fertilizer, then they fail to realize that soil is a complicated mix of other elements from the periodic table.

The Monsanto solution is cumbersome. It is conceived and maintained on a foul mix of laziness, ignorance and greed. They may make a quick profit from this short sightedness, but inevitably they will destroy their customer base. Those people who continue to farm the Monsanto way will fail financially. This is why sustainable farming under the permaculture or natural sequence banner must expand onto large scale agriculture. Geoff Lawton is doing the best thing for permaculture by showing its merits on large scale farms in Jordan now. Companies that follow Geoff’s sustainable, large scale farming will out-compete Monsanto and silence them for good.

llustrative scientific research conducted in 57 countries found resource-conserving agriculture could increase the average crop yield by 79 percent (Pretty et al., 2006).

The average crop yield increases were 116 percent increase for all African projects and 128 percent increase for the projects in East Africa (UNEP-UNCTAD, 2008).

Overall, the world average organic yields are calculated to be 132 percent more than current food production levels.(Organic Agriculture and Food Security, FAO. 2007).

Maize yields increased between 20 and 50% in Brazil by using green manure (Parrot et al., 2002).

Farmers in Nepal increased yields 175 percent by using agro-ecological management practices (Parrot et al., 2002).

In Tigray, Ethiopia, composted plots had yields three to five times higher than those treated only with chemicals (Parrot et al., 2002).

Farmers throughout the developing world have consistently high yield ratios when they incorporated intensive agroecological techniques, such as crop rotation, cover cropping,agroforestry, addition of organic fertilizers or more efficient water management (Badgley et al., 2007).

Farmers throughout the developing world today and have a huge potential for increasing this production even more.

Large-scale studies show potential production increases from 79 to 132 percent, whilesmall-scale studies have shown the potential for a fivefold increase in production.

Hans Herren, co-chair of IAASTD, states very clearly there should be no doubt about the capacity for ecological farmers to feed the world:

“The evidence in support of low input, ecological or “conservation” agriculture is undeniable, from the IAASTD, to the Union of Concerned Scientists to a recent UNCTAD report that states ‘organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional productive systems, and is more likely to be sustainable in the long term.’ And evidence that sustainable, ecologically based agriculture can provide the nutrition and income to the billion plus poor and hungry of today, and the 2 billion newcomers by 2050, is now well proven.”

This premise is usually overlooked in discussions on how to end hunger and feed future generations, even though it has been tirelessly repeated by the small-scalefarmers themselves, as well as many NGOs and scientists. The fact that increasedsupport to ecological agriculture can substantially increase food production has to be the principal strategy of any move from unsustainable industrial agriculture to a viable, multifaceted small-scale agriculture that can feed future populations.

Can industrial agriculture also feed us? Large-scale industrial agriculture produces only around 30 percent of the food consumed globally, while small-scale food producers produce at least 70 percent(ETC-group. Who will feed us?).

Expansion of industrial food production on a scale necessary for meeting the current demand of the majority of the world’s population, not to mention the extra 2.2 billion who will join the ranks by 2050, will cause enormous environmental problems. This is explained in the next chapter.

RESULTS: INCREASED PRODUCTION WITH ECOLOGICAL FARMING

See:

http://www.utviklingsfondet.no/filestore/ViableFuture-web.pdf