Environmental Health Risk Can Be Minimized
With Organic Farming

Reduce the environmental health risk caused by using agriculture fertilizer chemicals; through growing organic food. The advantages of organic farming are important for you, your family and for the sustainability of the planet.

Intensive farming increases environmental health risk and, in particular, livestock disease. This was recognized in the year 1910, by Albert Howard, Honorary Fellow of the Imperial College of Science, and formerly the Director of the Institute of Plant Industry and Agricultural Adviser to States in Central India and Rajputana.

This knowledgeable agricultural scientist was convinced that malnutrition was the cause of Foot and Mouth disease. To prove this he conducted a 13-year experiment with cattle on his 75 acre farm.

His animals were provided with "suitable housing and with fresh green fodder, silage, and grain, all produced from fertile soil". Howard insisted that if animals were given this quality of life they would not fall prey to disease.

Further, they were not vaccinated against any diseases.

The next stage was to bring his animals in contact with infected cattle. He writes:

"My animals then had to be brought in contact with diseased stock. This was done by allowing them: (1) to use the common pastures at Pusa, on which diseased cattle sometimes grazed, and (2) to come in direct contact with foot-and-mouth disease.

This latter was easy, as my small farmyard was only separated from one of the large cattlesheds of the Pusa Estate by a low hedge over which the animals could rub noses. I have often seen this occur between my oxen and foot-and-mouth cases.

Nothing happened. The healthy, well-fed animals reacted to this disease exactly as suitable varieties of crops, when properly grown, did to insect and fungus pests - no infection took place. "Neither did any infection occur as the result of my oxen using the common pastures. This experiment was repeated year after year between 1910 and 1923".

Albert Howard

A century ago a solution to diseases in livestock was made tested, and it worked. Unfortunately, the world decided to ignore it. Fortunately, today, we have the Soil Association and others across the globe promoting organic farming and sustainable farming methods, with a focus on minimizing environmental health risk.

Please click on soil association standards to see how the SA standards for livestock farming and animal welfare developed from Arthur Howard’s methods.

If you want to make sure that the meat and dairy products that you eat are free from chemicals and disease, and care about environmental health, visit Buy Organic Food. There you will find information on how to go about buying organically produced food (that is produced using sustainable farming methods), as well as its benefits.

If you are looking for an organic food supplier in your area, please click on Organic Food Suppliers.

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