SCHOOLS, GARDENS AND THOSE PESKY 67 MILLION BIRDS

There is something just right about organic and gardening. Organic and gardening seem to go together like crackers and cheese, or laurel and hardy.

Add school children into the mix, and organic almost becomes de rigeur. This probably says a lot about societies' impression of children as innocent little bundles of delicate joy, as well as the very real physiological developmental differences between children and adults.

For example, it is easier now to get organic babyfood than conventional, and even conventional babyfood has severe ingredient restrictions which make it closer to organic anyway.

On the home page of Bord Bia's website, there is a link to an organic gardening for primary schools initiative. This features a complimentary DVD available to primary schools to equip them with the knowledge and ability to build, develop and maintain an organic garden within existing school grounds.

Students can learn how to grow healthy foods, understand plant life and the importance of seasonality. The garden can also be used to explain concepts such as water cycle, biodiversity, composting and other related areas.

This initiative began in February 2008, when four different schools had their progress recorded over an 18 month period. The schools, two in Dublin, one in Kildare and one in Louth, were assisted by a team of organic experts.

Children from all classes were involved in the project and the DVD demonstrates the children�s involvement in creating a garden. The focus was different in the different schools � for example very little development of a school garden had taken place in the Holy Trinity School in Donaghmede, Dublin, while the school in Prosperous, Kildare had a well developed garden in place and the focus here was in enhancing it. This involved an insect hotel and improving their composting facilities.

While this is impressive enough, the fact is that for the last two years, about 2000 schools have, to varying degrees, been involved in mostly organic gardening anyway.

Both agri-aware's meet the spuds and incredible edibles involved schoolchildren planting and maintaining school gardens. None of the instructions involved any agri-chemicals. Schools I visited over those two years certainly developed their gardens organically.

Over in the White House, Michelle Obama has had school children gardening organically too. Her aim is educational: �My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities� according to Obama.

Sniffing a PR disaster, The MidAmerica CropLife Asociaton wrote a slightly bizarre letter to the First Lady, outlining the importance of conventional agriculture.

Some of the claims are entertaining. The letter implies that organic garden is a rejection of the kind of farming that has help the US lead the world in �the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts�.

Interesting too is the claim that �sophisticated Global Positioning Systems can be specifically designed for spraying pesticides. A weed detector equipped with infrared light identifies specific plants by the different rates of light they reflect and then sends a signal to a pump to spray a preset amount of herbicide onto the weed.�

Less militaristically, the letter also claims that �agricultural land provides habitat for 75% of the nation's wildlife.�

Yet somehow at least 67 million birds die immediately as a direct result of pesticide applications in farming in the US every year.

In fact, this figure is considered conservative, as it does not include indirect bird deaths: �birds that perish after a period of illness, that die after feeding on poisoned insects, rodents, or other prey, or losses due to failed reproduction� according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Hardly the most precise use of biocides, or the most benign way to provide a habitat.

From Pennsylvania Avenue to Prosperous County Kildare, in the battle between holistic nature studies and scientific surgical strikes, it seems that the former is winning out.

After all, 67 million dead birds can't be wrong.