Organic Agriculture And Gardening A Textbook For Healthier Living

To paraphrase the late American humorist Will Rogers, this author never believes what he views on television news.

Not all of the food that we eat comes from Northern California, nor Central Florida.

The vast majority of it is grown here in North Carolina by hard working small famers on traditional family farms who have dedicated themselves to time-honored practices handed down from generation to generation.

This author was once among them and he knows from experience the hardships and obstacles that each producer  must overcome.

As seen in the Intro Media, the Correll's of Cleveland County have made anx effective conversion  from less profitable dairy production to more far more profitable market egg and vegetable production.

Obviously, unpredictable weather is a constant challenge, along with constantly fluctuating market conditions. 

And yet, with improper  soil practices, dramatic climate changes and the arrival of evasive species, effective pest management procedures have become a must.

With all of this in mind, dedicated researchers at North Carolina A&T, and N.C. State and, as well as the Cotton Institute and a host of others are always at their watch for the emergence of new species  of fungi, insects and weeds when they plague NC farm operators.

The first known pesticide was elemental sulfur dusting, used in ancient Sumer about 2500 BC  

By the 15th Century, toxic chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, and lead were being applied to crops to kill pests. 

In the 17th Century, nicotine sulfate was extracted from tobacco leaves for use as an insecticide.

The 19th Century saw the introduction of two more natural pesticides, pyrethrum, which is derived from chrysanthemums, and rotenone, which is derived from the roots of tropical plants. 

Until the 1950's, arsenic-based pesticides were often used. 

Chemist Paul Müller soon discovered that DDT was a very effective insecticide in the 1940's. Chlorinates such as DDT remained dominant, but they were replaced in the U.S. by organophosphates and carbamates by 1975. 

Since then, with the advent of organic gardening, pyrethrin compounds have again become the dominant insecticide in use.

Herbicides became commonplace in the 1960's, led by triazine and other nitrogen-based compounds, carboxylic acids such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and glyphosate.

In the 1960's, it was discovered that DDT and its isomers were preventing many fish-eating birds from reproducing, which was a serious threat to biodiversity. 

Rachel Carson then wrote the best-selling book Silent Spring about biological persistence, which inspired Richard Nixon to establish the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972.

The agricultural use of DDT has now been banned under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, but it is still used in some developing nations to prevent malaria and other tropical diseases by spraying on interior home walls to kill or repel mosquitoes.