RE: Startling statistic

**"Jeff Ball" j*@starband.net**

There is an interesting conundrum here I believe.  A serious organic
gardener, either vegetables or flowers, usually is very aware of the
importance of organic matter in the soil and over the years adds lots and
lots of organic stuff to the soil.  I suspect most serious organic gardeners
are aware of the importance of mulch which not only feeds the soil, but also
houses the ants, spiders, and ground beetles that will control over 50% of
the pest insects in the garden.  My experience, back when I had a long time
organic garden, was that after five or six years of serious soil amendment,
serious effort to attract many species of songbirds to include my garden as
part of their territory, and serious effort not to disrupt the habitat of
the ants, spiders and ground beetles in the garden, I had no problems for
which an organic pesticide was needed.  We went for years, not needing to
buy any insecticide, because for the few problems that appeared, we already
had a supply that would last us ten years.
Now I wish I could say with confidence that such a scenario is common among
American gardeners.  Unfortunately I don't even believe such a scenario is
common among folks who call themselves "organic gardeners", mostly because
soil was always a side issue in the "organic mantra" in my experience with
Rodale and New Alchemey Institute in Cape Cod.  Adding the organic stuff to
soil when STARTING a garden was a big deal, but the ongoing month to month
care of the soil was never a priority.  The priority was focused on the
elimination of the use of synthetic pesticides.
So maybe having only 2% of the consumer pesiticide market being organic,
might not mean that only 2% of the 15 million gardeners in this country are
organic gardeners.  Nevertheless, the 2% figure indicates to me that there
is little increase in the movement toward organic gardening.  We old suckers
who came out of the hoopla of the sixties and the seventies may still be
serious organic nuts, but I don't see much evidence in the current garden
magazines and garden newspaper literature that indicates great interest in
organic methods.
I think the folks coming through the master gardener programs tend to end up
on the organic side of things even though most mater gardener curriculum
still give little emphasis on organic methods.  So maybe as the master
garden number increase, the tendency towards using organic methods will go
up because hopefully they influence a lot of people.  I am ever the
optimist.
2% is still depressing.
Jeff Ball

-----Original Message-----
From: gardenwriters-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[g*@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Margaret
Lauterbach
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 10:20 AM
To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum
Subject: Re: [GWL] Startling statistic

At 11:49 AM 10/17/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Last week I spent some time at a distributor's sales show with an old
friend
>who is the national sales manager for one of the larger pesticide
>manufacturers. He was showing me some of the new products his company was
>announcing for next year. As an aside he mentioned that only 2% of all the
>pesticide sales in the country to consumers are organic products.  I was
>stunned.  I don't know what I thought, but it sure wasn't only 2%.  Two
>percent is such a small portion of the total market as to be irrelevent, an
>idea I find very disappointing having been a proponent of organic gardening
>for over 20 years.  I have to conclude that there is no significant organic
>movement among gardeners in this country, and I don't like that idea.  Does
>anyone agree?
>
>Jeff Ball

This is a horrible statistic, but I wonder how many growers use vinegar for
herbicides or make their own homemade insecticidal soap sprays.  Perhaps
the organic movement is at least a little more vigorous than this would
indicate.  Margaret Lauterbach

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