Links CONTACT:  podcast@worldorganicnews.com   The industrial agriculture “feed the world” myth — Local Food Northland http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fN7   The Alliance to Feed the Future King Corn **** This is the World Organic News for the week ending 31st of July 2017. Jon Moore reporting! This week we are focusing on post from the blog Local Food Northland entitled The industrial agriculture “feed the world” myth. The myth discussed in this video and written presentation is the “We need industrial agriculture to feed the world now and into the future.” This myth is prevalent, usually unchallenged and wrong. It is supported in the US by The Alliance to Feed the Future. I’ve put a link in the show notes. It worth a look just to check the members page. Here we find such health food producers as the National Frozen Pizza Institute, the Association for Dressings and Sauces, Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, The Fertilizer Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, International Association of Color Manufacturers, National Confectioners Association and Shelf-Stable Food Processors Association to name a few from the list of members. You can see a certain pattern in these members. They are not localised, wholefood types. Shelf-Stable Food Processors Association are not in existence to breed better tasting, longer shelf life tomatoes as much as they are developing better chemical preservatives to maintain the look but not necessarily the health properties of food, certainly not wholefoods. They were originally formed in 1923 as the National Meat Canners Association. There is a list of their aims and the fourth aim is: Quote: to inform the trade and public of the advantages of processed food product usage; End Quote Given the history of excessive salt, fat and sugar useage in the processed food sector, these might not be the best source of information on the best way to feed the world. I’m not picking on the Shelf-Stable Food Processors Association, the National Confectioners Association is probably not a better source of information on farming and food production either. So, let’s look the system of production The Alliance to Feed the Future is advocating for. It is the industrial, Henry Ford inspired, ways of doing things. As I’ve argued elsewhere, the Ford system is great for producing widgets and turning employees into robots but food production involves far more living things. A carrot seed is not pig iron. To begin at the beginning: Seeds. In the industrial system seeds are highly interbred to produce hybrid types with certain characteristics. These characteristics are chosen to create a level of uniformity suitable to industrial processes. I’ll cover alternative methods and choices later but stay with me on this journey. These seeds are sold on a one use only basis. Collecting a portion of this year’s crop to replant next year is not an option for at least three reasons. One: as hybrids they will not continue to grow true to type each year as the founding cultivars will exhibit their growth patterns over the years. This will result in very uneven growth rates, maturation rates and so on, Two: quite often and increasingly, these seeds are design to be infertile in the next generation. This is especially so with vegetable seeds. A friend saved the seeds from a halloween pumpkin so I could regrow them for her the next season. All of the flowers were male and therefore incapable of forming fruits. And lastly Three: producers are being forced to sign agreements as part of the conditions of seed purchase which prohibits them from seed saving and re-sowing. Now that the farmer has these seeds in their soil, it turns out they are designed to grow with application of chemical fertilisers and water and set times. It just so happens that many of the seed sellers also sell fertilisers. Happy coincidence. To obtain the greatest possible yield to cover the costs of these one off seeds, the necessary fertiliser and