Chemical vs Organic Gardening

The Chemical Way

The purely chemical gardener uses his soil simply as a means of anchoring plant roots and of holding artificial fertilizers to provide plant nutrients. This approach does have excellent results, in the short term. In the long term, however, it has two disastrous consequences.

Because organic matter is not replaced, the soil organisms die out; without them the soil structure breaks down and the soil becomes hard, airless, and unproductive. Attempts at “force-feeding” the plants result in soft, sappy growth, which is prone to attack by all manner of pests and diseases.

Mistakes of Modern Farming Technology

Modern technology has its uses and cannot be broadly condemned, but there have been many mistakes. The dramatic turnaround from scarcity to plenty over the past century has been achieved at the expense of a massive and ever-increasing input of chemicals and with little thought for tomorrow.

Where corn has proven more profitable than cows, the practice of replacing organic matter on the land has  died out. The result is that soils are becoming lifeless and, in many instances, simply disappearing into the  sea. Larger agricultural machines have demanded larger fields and, as a result, trees and shrubbery have  disappeared taking their dependent wildlife with them.