How much life is found around maximumly productive farms? (Not the hobby-type, I mean, the “feed the world” kind. The global need for high productivity does seem to put a question-mark on the local-organic approach, despite its advantages. If anyone has feedback to the contrary, lemme know!)
In our little organic garden it’s amazing how many bugs, bees, snakes, frogs, toads there are. Presently, there’s only one baddie: the Japanese beetle. I manually pinch em and have a trap for em. (Just learned that traps lure in more than they catch, so I’ve moved mine far away for now.)
If we chemically treat our garden for a pro “feed the world” yield, would all that life still be there? Are chemical farms even safe for people? I’m sure that at treating/spraying times that chem-farms are toxic for quite a radius, but even after drying, when it all adds up, are they truly safe to walk around in, barefoot, shorts, bare skin brushing against crops? …I would hope so, but I wonder.
And, again, how much other life on a chem-farm? Who knows, maybe modern chems leave room for the little things… ?
I could go down the road and wander thru a pro crop and find out. My recollection is barren monocrop and no other sign of life. But maybe that’s unfair.
