In the minds of the public, organic food production is associated with efforts to save the planet, but Warren Morgan, an apple grower and packer in Quincy, Washington, questions whether cultivation—one of the few options that organic growers have for managing weeds—is really a greener practice than using herbicides. Speaking at the Washington State Horticultural Association’s annual meeting in Wenatchee last December, Morgan said pioneers of the organic movement wanted to minimize their impact on the land and its inhabitants by avoiding the use of toxic crop protection materials. So, most growers were forced to use mechanical methods or burning […]