Sustainable Farming

Sustainable farming must meet several requirements. It must focus on the effects it will have on the environment, society, and the economy. Sustainability is the ability to maintain a certain level of living and therefore when farming in a sustainable manner one must be able to balance all of the above issues and not concern over depleting one or the other. When focusing on environmental issues facing sustainable farming we must look at several general principles. For instance we should take the most obvious step in protecting the natural resources the environment has to offer and minimize all types of pollution towards it. To fulfill the above principle and other similar ones we must properly irrigate the land, eliminate the use of harmful pesticides as well as participate in other positive practices. If you do not follow general ecological principles such as the one stated above then you couldn’t farm in a sustainable manner because in some way you would be disrupting the flow of nature by creating an imbalance.

Organic Vs. Natural

Many people do not know that there is a difference between natural and organic products, but in reality there is a huge difference. The labeling of “natural” on products can be seen as a scam. Natural products are allowed to be grown with toxic synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Antibiotics, and hormones may also be used and in the sense of dairy products, animals can be grown in confined spaces. On the other hand in order to be organic you cannot be introduced to any toxic synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, antibiotic, or hormone. Neither could you be grown in a small, confined area. Therefore there is a big difference in the two terms and they do determine what I buy when I go grocery shopping. I can’t say it always dictates what I buy because organic products due tend to be more expensive at least in some cases and being in college I cannot always afford to only buy organic products and though guilty I instead settle for the ones that say “natural.” Being able to identify the difference between the two makes me feel pretty connected with my food system. Not only do I focus on whether it is organic or not I also focus on other issues such as if it is grown locally or not. These are all important factors that I think one must consider when buying food and like stated earlier being able to identify them makes me feel like I am pretty connected to our food system.

Recently our student government senate with the help of other groups on campus was able to pass the bill for us to have a garden on campus, which is great. I’ve always thought that since FGCU is a green campus it would be 100% appropriate that we have one. Regardless if veggies or fruit are grown it does not matter either one would be great. Now the next great idea would be if FGCU was able to take the food grown on campus and distribute it every Wednesday lets say to the student body. This would be a perfect way to maintain a sustainable farm on campus because we would be taking in consideration the environmental concerns, economic concerns (supplying students with free fruit/veggies) and social concerns (including society in maintaining a sustainable farm).