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Page added on May 31, 2013
The Russians Prove Small Scale Organic Farming CAN Feed the World
If you’ve already been through an economic collapse, you might know a thing or two about how to feed your family with little money. More importantly, you might know how to do it without pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and GMO seed. On a total of about 20 million acres managed by over 35 million Russian families, Russians are carrying on an old-world technique, which we Americans might learn from. They are growing their own organic crops – and it’s working.
According to some statistics, they grow 92% of the entire countries’ potatoes, 77% of its vegetables, 87% of its fruit, and feed 71% of the entire population from privately owned, organic farms or house gardens all across the country. These aren’t huge Agro-farms run by pharmaceutical companies; these are small family farms and less-than-an-acre gardens.
A recent report from Agro-ecology and the Right to Food says that organic and sustainable small-scale farming could double food production in the parts of the world where hunger is the biggest issue. Within five to 10 years we could see a big jump in crop cultivation. It could also take the teeth out of GMO business in the US.
According to World Watch, we can also farm fish responsibly and feed the planet. Sustainable fish farms along with organic gardening are becoming the new agro-business.
“Farmed seafood has certain advantages over wild fish in meeting modern demand. For a global marketplace that demands increasingly predictable products—uniform-sized fillets available year-round, free of the vagaries of weather or open-ocean fishing—fish farming delivers this predictability. Farms are also becoming more productive, raising fish at a lower cost and expanding the potential market.” (Brian Halwell, Farming Fish for the Future).
As long as this is done in sustainable ways without GMO salmon, we really can feed over 7 billion people.
Unfortunately, not all of us want to utilize organic farming. Purchasing 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock in 2012, Bill Gates is just one key figure who argues that GMOs are an absolute necessity in order to fight global starvation. Of course along with ‘saving the world from starvation’, GMO crops also bring along a large number of unwanted health and environmental effects. This isn’t even considering the fact that long term, we truly don’t know what kind of impact this will have on the earth on a major scale. Though we do know once everything is GMO, it will be virtually impossible to go back to a natural world.
Check out NaturalSociety’s YouTube Channel for some recent videos on the March Against Monsanto event occurring in Philadelphia, PA. The videos offer some educational information along with a look at how people everywhere reject Monsanto and genetically modified organisms. Say goodbye to GMOs. We don’t need them.
“We won’t solve hunger and stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations,” says Olivier De Schutter.
This post originally appeared at Natural Society.
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Editor’s Note: Be sure to check out the Infowars Seed Center to get started on your own organic garden.
15 Comments on "The Russians Prove Small Scale Organic Farming CAN Feed the World"
Arthur on Fri, 31st May 2013 1:36 pm
One thing Russia has enough: fertile soil. And Russian with a ‘Datscha’, a modest wooden house/hut for the weekend. And it is not difficult to grow crops: remove the weeds and stones from the land, put seeds in the soil, make sure it gets enough water and the most important: pick weeds. And after a few months you can harvest your potatoes, cabbages, strawberries, beans, carrots, onions, etc. Been there, done that, when I was a kid with my dear father rip. The challenge is not to produce loads of foods, but to conserve it and plan consumption. And it is very rewarding, especially for people used to office work. And it does not eat away all your spare time either. One morning every week or even every two weeks is enough.
J-Gav on Fri, 31st May 2013 3:23 pm
Yeah, been there too, Arthur, also with my rip father, in Michigan. Americans will be loath to even pay attention to anything from agricultural experiences in places like Russia or Cuba, but there may be quite a lot to learn there. And yes – F@õock GMOs!
Plantagenet on Fri, 31st May 2013 3:52 pm
I’m not sure why Americans should want to change from their current diet of chicken, fish, steak, eggs, cheese, fine wine and liquor, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. to the Russian diet of skanky cabbage, potatoes and bad vodka, but certainly people are free to do so if they choose.
J-Gav on Fri, 31st May 2013 6:51 pm
Plants – looks like you’re kind of out of touch with the average American’s dietary habits – Never heard of Big Mac and fries? Fine wine and liquor for everybody … right!
By the way, the ‘good eating habits,’ in some fantasy world, that you mention could easily be more cultivated in the U.S. but aren’t because of the power of Big-Ag etc. Wake up dude.
Plantagenet on Fri, 31st May 2013 7:38 pm
3-Gav—-if you are living on Big Mac and fries, then I’m not surprised that the prospect of dining on Russian cabbage and potatoes is so appealing to you.
You’d be much better off eating a nice US-grown auagula salad topped with Alaskan shrimp and paired with a light champagne from California.
J-Gav on Fri, 31st May 2013 9:11 pm
Plants – I’m not the average American – I live in France, never set foot in a fast food joint, Starbucks or such either, eat plenty of (really fresh – not 5,000 mile fresh)fruit and vegetables, some meat, cheese, fish and shellfish, etc.
I don’t think I’d be better off at all eating anything you’re eating.
Lore on Fri, 31st May 2013 11:20 pm
Soon, everyone that’s left will be a small scale farmer.
rollin on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 1:28 am
The home gardening and local farm market movement has been growing in the US for years.
Of course we can feed ourselves highly nutritious food grown at home or nearby. Most big ag grows feed corn, ethanol corn, soybeans and wheat. The healthy food market is a wide open area.
Of course gardening does take away some TV and couch time.
Plantagenet on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 1:45 am
Ah yes…..France.
The country that still uses lead pipes in their plumbing system (heavy metal poisoning, anyone?) and cheerfully produced and consumed millions of little green glass bottles of Perrier water—each bottle with a dose of unhealthy levels of Benzene.
BillT on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 4:13 am
Planet, you are obviously an indoctrinated, flag waving, patriot (of the worse kind) that has been dumbed down to a single digit IQ by your government. Your ‘America First’ attitude is so last century.
Your government is screwing you every way but Sunday, yet you insist that they are better than anyone else. I bet, you have never had a passport and been out of North America. Maybe not even out of your state.
America is the trash dump of the world today. Obesity is only beat out by cancers and bad health. IQs are falling like rocks. Common sense died decades ago. And everyone is getting poorer by the minute, yourself included, but you don’t even know it. The rest of the world will be glad when the US sinks like the Titanic.
Arthur on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 8:47 am
“Planet, you are obviously an indoctrinated, flag waving, patriot (of the worse kind) that has been dumbed down to a single digit IQ by your government. Your ‘America First’ attitude is so last century.”
‘Plantagenet’ or Plant for short is British if I remember well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet
In the lunatics asylum everybody is a Napoleon.
Beery on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 8:59 am
“‘Plantagenet’ or Plant for short is British if I remember well.”
Like many royal things considered by many to be British, the Plantagenets were actually a Frankish (sort of German/French) dynasty, originating in the Rhineland.
Our current royal family hails from the Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha – there’s a good old fashioned English place name for you.
Arthur on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 9:04 am
Maybe the best example for the (post crash) modern world will be that of the Kibbutz in Israël: small-scale communities surviving effectively largely on their own.
google kibbutz+israel in the picture mode.
Arthur on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 9:18 am
“Our current royal family hails from the Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha – there’s a good old fashioned English place name for you.”
…or Windsor for short.
Be honest Beery, if one day the US would be balkanized and Australia would be taken over by the Chinese, and the Churchillian ‘History of the English-Speaking Peoples’ would be over, what would Britain do, assuming the EU would continue to exist? Be a dedicated European nation or retreat in ‘Splendid Isolation’?
Juan Pueblo on Sat, 1st Jun 2013 6:31 pm
Small scale organic agriculture will be the only option as we run out of fossil fuels in the future. Better be ahead of the curve!