Safe Food, From Soil to Plate

[Ladyhawke1]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/02-7

 

[elf]

Thanks for the great job you do of keeping us informed. So, I know they're referring to large scale farming, but just wondering, what amount of waste is enough to be concerned about as far family water contamination ? Is there a certain distance from our well that we need to locate our garden, if say, we should obtain a truckload of horse manure to spread and plow in between seasons? Is a compost pile including waste from, say, 20 chickens, a concern?

 

[wifezilla]

Elf, on the scale of a family garden I wouldn't stress too much, especially if the manure is aged or composted. If you do it correctly, the plants will be using most of the nutrients from the compost and the natural soil bacteria will take care of the bad stuff. It's when you start pouring chemicals on things and upset the natural balance that things go wacky.

In these CAFO situations they have HUGE lagoons full of waste and the whole place is just a giant pile of disease. Over crowding causes not just problems for the animals but for the aquifer.