Excellent, creative and very well presented this publication @agmoore, also accompanied by information of great interest as it is agriculture and the promoters of this important practice such as producers or farmers. Since you mentioned some of the negative things that these farm workers live, I take the opportunity to tell an anecdote from my family. My father for more than 40 years was dedicated to agriculture, even had several hectares of land that was dedicated to planting sugar cane and other crops, when he received the professional inspection of engineers in order to improve the quality of their crops sold them a lot of chemicals, my father applied them and so far so good. However, at one point my mother became pregnant and the baby was not fully formed, specifically its head, for this reason it was stillborn and after many studies it was determined that the cause was due to pesticide residues, in short my father already had traces of these products in his body and this affected the baby's development.
This was one of the reasons why I studied Agronomy, the purpose was to know everything that surrounds this world and seek methods that are friendlier to the environment and those who are exposed to modern agricultural practices, I learned a lot from my father and the university made me strengthen this knowledge. Agroecology seeks to implement changes in this system, but it is difficult to fight against industries and change people's mentality, sometimes it is not healthy to eat vegetable products, especially if you do not know how they are produced.
A big greeting and good health @agmoore, a pleasure to read you.
That is a heart-wrenching story, @abneagro. Without farmers, most of us would not eat. They are the silent heroes, unsung in society. Farming is hard, so I understand why people look for shortcuts, but nature doesn't understand.
When I was a child I remember on my grandfather's farm trucks used to go down the rows of fruit and spray them. It was routine. Today his granddaughter runs an organic farm. No chemicals of any kind. I hope that is the wave of the future, but it seems not to be the case.
Thank you for your comment and for sharing the story about your family. From a terrible event great good has come, because you educate all of us.
A big hug to you, my friend, @abneagro. Good health to you and your family.
@abneagro, @agmoore, you are absolutely right that it is unlikely that the farming of the future will be organic because there doesn't seem to be a simple solution. I have read that pesticides are used because many of the crops we grow today, especially grains, are too weak to be able to survive in the wild. Without pesticides, the amount of labor needed to produce enough food from those crops would be extreme. That is actually why we started using pesticides and synthetic fertilizers to begin with. The same is true for many of our livestock. Any pasture raised chickens either have their diet supplemented with grains, which is what most do, or they are forced to kill off all of the local predators.
Organic farming is basically pre-industrial agriculture. One reason I am skeptical that society will or even can switch to organic farming is because all farmers use shortcuts. Farming itself is a shortcut over hunting and gathering, and farming itself has lead to deforestation and pollution long before pesticides were ever invented. I am not against farming and I don't think we should go back to being hunter-gatherers like some cranks think though. I just don't see there being a simple solution like I thought there was growing up.