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Comment by vimy | Hacker News Reader

The EU wants to push the same dangerous idea with the green deal. Switch 25 % of farms to organic in ten years.

Edit: People seem to misunderstand. I don't mean overnight, I mean pushing the same idea = organic farming. It's doesn't work at scale. Doesn't matter if you have ten years or one day.

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As a reference, currently 20% of Sweden's area used for crops is organic.

Edit: and 17% of milk production.

Phasing changes in over time with proper education, training, and building out of supporting industry is not nearly the same as announcing a flag day when your farmers don't have warning, training, or access to the replacement goods.

US Organic and EU organic are two different things. In EU organic "bio", copper pesticides are allowed, and even compounds synthesized by humans in some borderline cases. Differences for wines are even more profound.

Doing something over 10 years and overnight are two very different things.

A gradual increase seems to be the right way. It lets producers adapt slowly.

That's not the same at all.

It will push food prices higher and make the EU more dependent on other regions for food security. It's shortsighted and dangerous.

The EU is already dependent on other regions because without imported synthetic fertilizers and other chemicals, they won't be able to produce the same yields anyway. Most countries there already have 10% or more farmland dedicated to organic practices.[1] They have more tooling and expertise available outside the chemical monocropping approach, which is what doomed the change in Sri Lanka.

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/657572/organic-farmland-...

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