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"Ok, I know this may raise a few eyebrows but it is very difficult and expensive to get organic fertilizer. I know all the benefits of organic fertiliser to the soil and it is natural way."
"The food we eat is organic as it is not processed and no chemicals sprayed on it. So, as long as we ensure the chemical fertilizers are fully used up, is it not ok to use chemicals?"
I think there is a considerable level of assumption in there.
(1) even certified organic produce has a considerable level of chemicals in it that are permitted and in some cases required by law, and some organic-approved chemicals (eg Bordeaux Mixture) can persist for a long time
(2) I'm not sure it is ever possible to be sure that chemical fertilisers are "fully used up", they certainly are not in modern agriculture - nitrate pollution is a major problem.
(3) I think word "chemical" is a chimerical word - pretty much anything can be defined as a "chemical". Spraying organically-approved Bordeaux mixture is as much a "chemical" as paraquat. Pretty much anything has the power to do harm, a surprising range of things can do net good regardless of side-effect. So it's unclear what you mean by "chemicals" in this context. Using Creosote to get rid of daisies is pretty much unambiguously not acceptable. Using a full-bore pesticide under approved controlled conditions to stop an outbreak of colarado beetle is probably a good thing.
"And moreover, is it not the same product? Nitrates are nitrates."
No is the short answer (IMO) to this.
(1) commercial nitrates are more soluble and tend to be washed out before being taken up. This isn't surprising from a commercial point of view - it's much easier to put a lot of powder/tablets etc on the soil than it is to monitor and work with a slow-release method that may not correct the levels in the timescales required for optimum growth.
(2) commercial fertiliser isn't just the packet on the shelf, it's the shelf, the factory, the lorry, and excavation and shipping of raw material. So aside from the consequences in the location you put the fertiliser, there's the consequences elsewhere.
(3) every bit of locally-produced compostable material/poo etc is another mass that isn't in a bin-lorry being shipped to disposal.
I don't use chemical fertilisers as I don't think it's worth it. There are clear and serious biological consequences to using them. If I don't use them, I may get less yield, but as I'm not going to reduce the level food-shopping to zero, the downside of not growing my own persists, so I don't think there is an upside.
"The food we eat is organic as it is not processed and no chemicals sprayed on it. So, as long as we ensure the chemical fertilizers are fully used up, is it not ok to use chemicals?"
I think there is a considerable level of assumption in there.
(1) even certified organic produce has a considerable level of chemicals in it that are permitted and in some cases required by law, and some organic-approved chemicals (eg Bordeaux Mixture) can persist for a long time
(2) I'm not sure it is ever possible to be sure that chemical fertilisers are "fully used up", they certainly are not in modern agriculture - nitrate pollution is a major problem.
(3) I think word "chemical" is a chimerical word - pretty much anything can be defined as a "chemical". Spraying organically-approved Bordeaux mixture is as much a "chemical" as paraquat. Pretty much anything has the power to do harm, a surprising range of things can do net good regardless of side-effect. So it's unclear what you mean by "chemicals" in this context. Using Creosote to get rid of daisies is pretty much unambiguously not acceptable. Using a full-bore pesticide under approved controlled conditions to stop an outbreak of colarado beetle is probably a good thing.
"And moreover, is it not the same product? Nitrates are nitrates."
No is the short answer (IMO) to this.
(1) commercial nitrates are more soluble and tend to be washed out before being taken up. This isn't surprising from a commercial point of view - it's much easier to put a lot of powder/tablets etc on the soil than it is to monitor and work with a slow-release method that may not correct the levels in the timescales required for optimum growth.
(2) commercial fertiliser isn't just the packet on the shelf, it's the shelf, the factory, the lorry, and excavation and shipping of raw material. So aside from the consequences in the location you put the fertiliser, there's the consequences elsewhere.
(3) every bit of locally-produced compostable material/poo etc is another mass that isn't in a bin-lorry being shipped to disposal.
I don't use chemical fertilisers as I don't think it's worth it. There are clear and serious biological consequences to using them. If I don't use them, I may get less yield, but as I'm not going to reduce the level food-shopping to zero, the downside of not growing my own persists, so I don't think there is an upside.
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Could be worth a fortune as a collectors item!
How could you do that.
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