The biggest issue that I have with pesticides and herbicides is that they actually result in overall weaker plants that are more prone to disease and less able to compete for sun and nutrients. This is kind of a bad thing when you're a small farm that harvests and weeds everything by hand.

Also, our neighbors raise honey bees and they requested that we not use pesticides on our plants so that the bees aren't affected. Which is an entirely reasonable request, especially since we'd planned to do that anyway.

I feel like maybe my original comment came off a little too mocking. Truthfully, veggies grown on the vine, sun ripened, and picked that day are second to none. There is definitely a difference when the farmer is focusing on quality over quantity.

However, I caution anyone that is buying foods simply because they're labeled as "Organic." We looked into getting our certification several times and ultimately concluded that it A) wasn't worth the cost and B) was hypocritical. Since the organic label actually allows for the usage of many chemical pesticides/herbicides.

Nothing irks me more than when people come up to buy something and then walk away with their nose in the air when we tell them that we aren't legally certified organic but we use fewer chemicals than many people who are. The term "Organic" absolutely is a scam because when you look under the hood you realize that they're allowed to use all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't expect.

So, if you're after food that's truly free of chemicals then do not buy it at the stores. Go to farmer's markets and talk to the farmer about how they raise their crops. All of the farmers I know are happy to talk about their plants and how they're raised. Just don't get blinded by the lack of an official organic certification (most small farms can't afford it anyway).

In the end though, I'm a realist. You simply cannot grow food on a commercial scale without some form of pesticide/herbicide. We lose a lot of product to bugs, rodents, and periodic disease. Since we're small we can usually pluck the affected plant and keep the rest of the field healthy, trap the rodents, etc. That's just not plausible for the large scale farms necessary to provide the country with all of the food it needs.

This post got a bit longer than I intended. My whole point, I guess, is that I think stuff like roundup, GMOs, etc is necessary in order to provide food on the scale that's needed to feed the entire country. Most people are going to be fine eating that way, I've personally never had an issue. But I also recognize that there are inherent drawbacks to using them and I'm a little nervous about what's going to happen if we get another country wide infestation of potato beetles.

The biggest issue that I have with pesticides and herbicides is that they actually result in overall weaker plants that are more prone to disease and less able to compete for sun and nutrients. This is kind of a bad thing when you're a small farm that harvests and weeds everything by hand.

Also, our neighbors raise honey bees and they requested that we not use pesticides on our plants so that the bees aren't affected. Which is an entirely reasonable request, especially since we'd planned to do that anyway.

I feel like maybe my original comment came off a little too mocking. Truthfully, veggies grown on the vine, sun ripened, and picked that day are second to none. There is definitely a difference when the farmer is focusing on quality over quantity.

However, I caution anyone that is buying foods simply because they're labeled as "Organic." We looked into getting our certification several times and ultimately concluded that it A) wasn't worth the cost and B) was hypocritical. Since the organic label actually allows for the usage of many chemical pesticides/herbicides.

Nothing irks me more than when people come up to buy something and then walk away with their nose in the air when we tell them that we aren't legally certified organic but we use fewer chemicals than many people who are. These are mostly the people I was referring to in my original comment. The term "Organic" absolutely is a scam because when you look under the hood you realize that they're allowed to use all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't expect.

So, if you're after food that's truly free of chemicals then do not buy it at the stores. Go to farmer's markets and talk to the farmer about how they raise their crops. All of the farmers I know are happy to talk about their plants and how they're raised. Just don't get blinded by the lack of an official organic certification (most small farms can't afford it anyway).

In the end though, I'm a realist. You simply cannot grow food on a commercial scale without some form of pesticide/herbicide. We lose a lot of product to bugs, rodents, and periodic disease. Since we're small we can usually pluck the affected plant and keep the rest of the field healthy, trap the rodents, etc. That's just not plausible for the large scale farms necessary to provide the country with all of the food it needs.

This post got a bit longer than I intended. My whole point, I guess, is that I think stuff like roundup, GMOs, etc is necessary in order to provide food on the scale that's needed to feed the entire country. Most people are going to be fine eating that way, I've personally never had an issue. But I also recognize that there are inherent drawbacks to using them and I'm a little nervous about what's going to happen if we get another country wide infestation of potato beetles.