Organic Cereals

Organic Cereals
Some people in first-world countries now believe that modern practices have become so destructive of the environment and of the health and welfare of the populace.

It is argued that agrochemicals have polluted the environment and damaged the local ecology: this is highly debatable because far less land is needed for staple food production under modern intensive systems than organic systems, which are labor intensive and give low yields.

It is also argued that the crops produced by modern farming methods are “inferior” to those harvested by our forefathers.

It is claimed that they taste inferior, have different textures, and poorer nutritional value.

Pliny, writing in Ancient Rome, said much the same: country bread was nicer and much more wholesome than the white bread eaten by city people.

Crops from farms using agrochemicals can also contain residual amounts of pesticides and other chemicals.

These chemicals will be a small part of the human diet. For these reasons alternative “organic farming practice” are being encouraged or at least experimented with in regions where food is in surplus.

Organic farming is becoming well established in the United States. In 1996 more than 7000 organic farms were recognized by the government.

Farmers following “organic” farming practices replace chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other agrochemicals with organic material such as composted vegetarian and manure from farm animals.

Crop rotation with the use of nitrogen-fixing plants such as clover increase the nitrogen levels in soil.

Weeds are discouraged by hoeing, mulching (covering with manure, straw, or sacking, burning) or removing by hand, which is expensive.

Pests are controlled by a variety of methods.

Organic farmers may also design shelters that physically protect their crops from weeds and pests.

Organic farming is more labor intensive and therefore the products are more expensive; however, the defenders of organic practices argue that as less non-sustainable fossil fuel is needed and other “hidden” advantages such as better soil structure, less soil erosion and more diverse ecology are achieved, the price is worth paying.

However for the foreseeable future only a rich population can afford to pay for a luxury of organic staple foods should they wish to.
Organic Cereals

Cereal in History

Cereal in History
The first recorded farming communities in the ninth millennium BC were found in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rives in what is now called Iraq.

These farmers were quite sophisticated and were in their way the founders of cereal technology. They grew wheat and other cereal grains (as well as keeping livestock) and used quite complicated irrigation systems to maintain their crops.

The studies shows comparing ancient human remains (and foodstuffs that surrounded them) form all parts of the globe show that farming practices did not start from one community and spread; instead, these ancient farming communities began independently.

Record shows that from 2300 to 1750 BC, wheat, barley, and rice were grown by inhabitants of northern India. In all these ancient societies cereals continued to be among the preferred crops right through to the Egyptians and on to the modern farms of time.

Records for Mexico and Central America show that the population was still predominantly made up of nomadic hunters, and a few cultivated crops made only a small contribution to their survival. Amaranth, a pseudocereal, was cultivated first (from 7000 to 5000 BC), but by around 2500 BC maize was first domesticated.

Later still, around AD 250 to 1600, maize was hybridized to increase the yields by Maya-Aztec civilization. These people were excellent farmers, who developed methods for tilling dry soil to retain moisture and also built the irrigation canal and made artificial gardens that floated on water.

The people of Inca Empire lived in the inhospitable Andes in around AD 1200. They cultivated maize on terraces with intricate irrigation and drainage systems.

They used stone hoes and digging sticks with a footrest for pushing the end into the soil. They fertilized their land and built stone food stores and granaries. The pseudocereal quinoa was another staple food of ancient Incas and is to have originated around Lake Titicaca.
Cereal in History