Dallas Morning News – February 27, 2020

Why Natural Organic Gardening and Landscaping Isn’t Mainstream

Since the natural organic approach works so well, why do so many people still recommend and use toxic chemical pesticides and salt fertilizers? I’ve written about “organiphobia” in the past, but there’s another reason for this problem that I need to add to my list. Reasons Previous reasons include – misunderstanding of organics, profit from chemical sales, paradigm problems, fear of going it alone and inability to admit being wrong. But there seems to be more.

Laziness is a reason I should have noticed before now. It’s comfortable to stick with the status quo and not take risks by thinking about and trying new ideas, techniques and products.

Natural organics on the farm

When questions on fertilizing or pest control arise, there are two basic routes to go for making choices to solve problems. One – misunderstanding of organics, profit from chemical sales, paradigm problems, fear of going it alone and inability to ad letting the chemical companies and the “land grant” universities tell you what to do since they have all the research. The other route is to do what the dirt doctor and the organic community say will work. Which way to go?

One of the toxic side’s arguments is that the natural organic folks don’t have any research backing up their recommendations. That’s not true of course. In every category of our recommendations there are research projects, experiments and scientific reports. Much of it can be found by simple on-line searches. There is anecdotal evidence of course, but a great deal of scientific work as well. Also – misunderstanding of organics, profit from chemical sales, paradigm problems, fear of going it alone and inability to ad anecdotal evidence shouldn’t be discounted. It can be very powerful: cornmeal for plant and toenail fungus, apple cider vinegar for head lice control and common salt for mice and rat control, etc.

Food production on an organic farm

Lush landscaping without toxic chemicals

Here’s a good example loser think in pest control. A local “expert” recently wrote this – again:

Peach, plum and other fruit trees should be sprayed before blooms open with Malathion or other labeled insecticide, again when three-fourths of the petals have fallen. Repeat the sprays on 10-day intervals until harvest. This is to prevent entry of the plum curculio worms into fruits.

As the friend that sent this said – “Can you imagine eating a thin skinned peach that has been sprayed with Malathion every 10 days of its life?”

Clean healthy vegetables without toxic chemicals

Pecan production without toxic chemicals

As I was writing this, another and maybe most important reason for organiphobia dawned on me. No universities teach a full degree program on the natural organic approach to gardening, farming, ranching or golf course management. That’s why the On-line Organic Certification Course was created. It and the research backing up this superior approach can be found at TexasOrganicResearchCenter.org. The mission of this not-for-profit 501(c)(3) is to find, organize and present this information for public access.