WASHINGTON, D.C. - A
spokesman for the nation’s fer
tilizer industry has urged a Senate
subcommittee that Congress not
wrap a $10.5 million request for
organic farming research in the
cloak of soil and water con
servation or under the cover of
unproving agricultural produc
tivity.
Gary D. Myers, president, The
Fertilizer Institute, said such an
effort is misleading. He em
phasized that his industry en
courages agricultural research,
promotes soil and water con
servation, and industry products
have been a major contributor to
Bicarb benefit
we’ve found that the need for
buffering goes beyond these
problem areas,” Peterson says.
Results of the California field
trials fill a previously-existing gap
in knowledge of sodium bicar
bonate’s role in alfalfa-based dairy
rations, Bath adds.
“In California we feed a lot of
alfalfa and most is fed in dry hay
form. When a cow eats dry
roughage and chews more, more
natural buffer is introduced in the
form os sodium bicarbonate in
saliva,” he explains.
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Organic farming funds opposed
the envied agricultural produc
tivity of the U.S. “Unfortunately,”
he said, “the research money
requested under the Agricultural
Productivity Act of 1983 (S. 1128)
would provide inconclusive
results, at best, and at worst
would be a $10.5 million waste. ’ ’
The bill, now under con
sideration by the Senate sub
committee on rural development,
would set up 24 “paired” farms for
a five-year comparison between
use of mainly “organic” farming
methods and conventional far
ming, it was noted.
Myers said that his industry
could not support the bill because
(Continued from Page Dl2)
The field trials demonstrate that
sodium bicarbonate does have a
place in dairy rations, even when
large amounts of alfalfa hay are
fed.
“Results are most likely when
cows are fed rations with low or
borderline fiber levels, and in
early lactation when dry matter
intake is low, milk production is
high and large amounts of con
centrates are fed,” Bath says.
A total of 1,280 cows were in
volved in the two trials, 479 at BJ
Dairy and 801 at 6T Ranch.
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the proposal contains a number of
unjustified presumptions. Among
these, he said, are that current
U.S. farm productivity is in
sufficient; that today’s
agricultural systems are un
profitable and wasteful; that
current agricultural research is
inadequate to address
agriculture’s needs; and that
funding of new “alternative far
ming” methods would produce
responses to these concerns.
However, Myers said his in
dustry could support a section of
the bill which calls for a thorough
information study of completed
research and of that underway,
which would address the concerns
under the legislation. “We would
support funding for such an effort,
so that decisions on further
research needs or im
plementation could be made on
a well-studied, intelligent basis.
“Although this bill does not use
the term ‘organic farming’ as
such,” Myers said, “it has become
known as an organic farming
research bi 11... with all the
mystique and misconceptions
which that term often brings to
mind.
“It has been popular in some
circles to promote use of so-called
‘organics’ as healthier for plants,
resulting in more nutritious foods,
and other catch phrases,” Myers
said. The fact is, he added, plants
cannot use .nutrients in organic
forms. The essential plant
nutrients which man apphes to
crops as fertilizers enter the plant
as inorganic ions, regardless of
whether the application is animal
manure, sewage sludge, green
legume crops, plant residues, or
commercial fertilizers. “Com
mercial fertilizers are nutrient
materials designed to maximize
efficient use by providing those
nutrients in forms readily
available to plants,” Myers said.
“Even though these facts have
been known for more than a
century and used to great ad
vantage by the farmer in supplying
abundant food and fiber the
misconception still is nurtured by
Lancaster Pomona picnic
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 14,1984—D13
some that use of ‘organics’ results
in more nutritious crops, more
productive soils, and embrace the
‘natural’ way to farm. These are
false concepts,” stated Myers.
Myers concluded with examples
of the vast quantities of organic
wastes that would be necessary to
even begin to supply today’s
agriculture with plant nutrients.
“To supply the equivalent of 200
pounds of nitrogen, now a common
application rate per acre for
productive com land, a realistic
estimate is that application of 20 to
40 tons of animal manure per acre
would be needed.” Clearly, he
said, such an option is unrealistic
in view of the quantum increase in
livestock that would be needed to
supply such wastes.
settings.
Following the meal the Master,
Clifford W. Holloway Jr., will
conduct a short business meeting.
Serving on the resolution com
mittee will be Robert T. Coates,
Emma Rhoades, Joseph G. Hess
and Kenneth Myer.
The Lecturer, Dorothy Berry,
will conduct games.
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