Home Grown viewer questions get answered

In this week’s Home Grown we asked our viewers what questions they would like us to ask a farmer on general agriculture.

Reporter Caitlin Slater sat down with farmer, John Boelts to bring you some of those answers.

Question 1: What are some of the benefits to consuming organic produce over regular produce?

“There’s been lots of studies done on this subject and in a nutshell, there aren’t any health wise,” said 1st Vice President of the Arizona Farm Bureau, John Boelts.

“However, people do have personal preferences and I grow both organic and conventional crops and people believe that there are less pesticides used on organic so they think they are exposing themselves to less pesticides and they think it’s better for the planet, but in actuality the opposite is true,” he added. “Our conventional crops use less pesticides and are easier on the environment but it is a personal preference thing and I certainly appreciate our customers preferences,” he said.

Second question: How do you keep animals and trash out of the fields?

“That’s an ongoing issue,” he said. “Certainly, the wind moves trash around so from time to time we have to pick up trash from around the perimeters of our field, especially around roadways. Keeping animals out is also a similar situation,” he said. “We may use small or large fencing depending on the need, but many of our fields don’t have a lot of animal activity near them but the ones that do will use a combination of fencing, deterrent methods such as noise makers and things like that to keep birds and animals out,” he said.

Third question: How has climate change affected farming?

“The idea of climate change is an ongoing thing, something we wouldn’t notice from year to year as it’s described, but I think our biggest impact to our region may be in rainfall and that’s still an ongoing observation,” he said.

“We’ve incurred droughts over and over again in the last century, some folks believe they are getting worse because of that but it still remains to be seen in many regards. As far as day in and day out on the ground here in Yuma, I would not say that we have seen dramatic changes or anything we can really point to, but I will say our area is supposed to have a cooling affect if the climate change that is described is happening, but we will see. I don’t see it getting any cooler around Yuma any time soon. It’s pretty hot right now,” he said.

If you are interested in sending in any questions on agriculture send them to the KSWT Facebook page.