Herbicides and Weed Management
About a year ago, I heard a presentation on pesticides that got me thinking about organic crop production from a different angle. It was given by Leonard Gianessi of the CropLife Foundation at a conference I attended in 2008. The Crop Life Foundation is a pro-pesticide advocacy group, funded by agronomic giants like Dow and Monstanto. I confess that if I had known this at the time, I probably would not have paid very close attention! But there was one point in the presentation that stuck with me even after I learned the origins of the speaker, and that was the short-handled hoe.
a slide from Leonard Gianessi's presentation
Somewhere in the evolution of agriculture, farmers had the idea to cut off the handle of a normal hoe and make it into a “short-handled hoe”. The purpose was to bring the worker closer to the crop seedlings so that he/she could better see what they were hacking at. Of course, this means that the workers are bent over all day, which is awfully hard on the back. The short-handled hoe was the center of a legal battle in 1974, where it was banned in California for the sake of health and safety of the farm workers. Some farmers used hand-weeding as an alternative, which wasn’t specifically addressed in the ban, but had similar health consequences. In 2004, California instituted a ban on hand-weeding as well, but organic farmers were granted an exception because they relied so heavily on the practice for weed control.
Weeds, even more than pests, are one of the biggest challenges and expenses for organic farmers. Organic producers rely on labor to a much greater extent than conventional farmers using pesticides. Throughout the May, June and July, organic cotton farmers employ about 12 hours per acre per month to chop weeds and grasses. On a 200 acre farm, this would add up to 2,400 hours of labor. I can’t find specific information about this online, but these numbers suggest to me that organic cotton production doesn’t normally use a short-handled hoe or hand-weeding. But no matter what they’re using, weeding is a hot,grueling job. It’s one thing to pull a few weeds in the morning, before the heat of the day, and it’s quite another to work all day, every day, to tend acres of cotton fields. It has to be said that migrant workers are tough, tough people. I always feel like kind of a marshmallow when I consider how hard they work.
Those who argue in favor of herbicides say that they spare workers the hard labor of hand weeding, and even benefit the environment by making no-till farming a possibility, among other things. It is also true that if laborers are properly trained and equipped, and chemicals are appropriately handled (as they are legally required to be) then the exposure that they receive should be minimal and benign. But we also know that the standard isn’t always reality, and the use of agricultural chemicals often has unintended consequences.
Photo courtesy of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service
Conclusion
“An organic farm, properly speaking, is not one that uses certain methods and substances and avoids others; it is a farm whose structure is formed in imitation of the structure of a natural system that has the integrity, the independence and the benign dependence of an organism.”- Wendell Berry, in The Gift of Good Land
I think too often we attribute these qualities to all organic farms, and not at all to conventional farms. If you were to ask them, most farmers would say that they are environmentalists. They recognize their own dependence on their land, and because they often plan to pass the farm on to future generation, they the need to manage their farm sustainably.
I wish very much that cotton was more like food, where it’s a lot easier to find a grower and have a dialogue on their production practices. Somewhere between growing the cotton and processing the cotton into fabric and clothing, we lose the ability to connect with the farmer in a direct and meaningful way, and are left to rely on the organic standard instead.
Because cotton is such a high maintainance crop, and because there are so many challenges with growing it organically, I’d encourage green crafters to consider using a diversity of materials. Absolutely yes, organic cotton, but also yes to hemp, linen and soy, and secondhand materials. Hemp and linen are two of my favorites for home decor items, because they’re naturally low input, they’re beautiful, and they wear like iron. I’m not anti-organic-cotton. For some products, like a baby’s onesie or a cozy quilt, I can’t picture any other fiber that can match the cozy softness of cotton. I also love organic farmers. In fact, I love any farmer that takes action to make their operation more sustainable, whether it’s someone who uses integrated pest management, winter cover crops, biointensive management, nutrient management, irrigation water management, precision farming… or any of the hundreds of practices out there to make the world a better place.
