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Organic farming is a way of farming that avoids the use of synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and, according to its proponents, follows the principles of sustainable agriculture. Its theoretical basis puts an emphasis on soil health, and its proponents believe that healthy soil yields healthier food. In many countries, including the US and in the EU, organic farming is also defined by law.1 Overview
Methods of organic farming vary. Each farm develops its own organic production system, determined by factors like climate, crop selection, local regulations, and the preferences of the individual farmer. However, all organic systems share common goals and practices:
In many parts of the world, organic certification is available to farms for a fee. Depending on the country, certification is either overseen by the government, or handled entirely by private certifiction bodies. Where laws exist, it is usually illegal for a non-certified farm to call itself or its products "organic".
It is important to make the distinction between organic farming and organic food. Farming is concerned with producing fresh products - vegetableVegetable is a nutritional and culinary term denoting any part of a plant that is commonly consumed by humans as food, but is not regarded as a culinary fruit, nut, herb, spice, or grain. In common usage, vegetables include the leaves (e. lettuce), stemss, fruitIn botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which would be plum, apple, and ors, meatMeat is animal flesh (mainly muscle tissue) used as food, sometimes with the exception of fish, other seafood, and poultry. Originally, the word meat meant simply "food". It is also used as a vulgar way to refer to the human body. see meat market. For the, dairyOxford, New York, July 2001 In many northern-hemisphere countries a dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk (mostly from cows, sometimes from buffaloes or goats) for human consumption. The end product of such processes are kno, eggBird and fish eggs are common food sources. Fish eggs are known as roe or caviar. The most commonly-used bird eggs are those from the chicken, duck and goose, but smaller eggs such as quail eggs are occasionally used as a gourmet ingredient, as are the las - for immediate consumption, or for use as ingredients in processed food. The manufacture of most processed food is well beyond the scope of farming.
Organic farming is not "new". In fact, it is a reaction against the large-scale, chemical-based farming practices that have steadily dominated food production over the last 80 years. The differences between organic farming and modern conventional farming account for most of the controversy and claims surrounding organic agriculture and organic food.
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Organic |
Conventional |
| Size |
relatively small-scale, independent operations (eg: the family farmThe family farm is a farm owned and operated by a family. It is the basic unit of the mostly-agricultural economy of much of human history and continues to be so in developing nations. Alternatives to family farms include those run by agribusiness or coll) |
large-scale, often owned by or economically tied to major food corporations |
| Methods |
low use of purchased fertilizers and other inputs; low mechanizationMechanization refers to the use of powered machinery to help a human operator in some task. The use of hand powered tools is not an example of mechanization. The term is most often used in industry. The addition of powered machine tools, such as the steam of the growing and harvesting process |
intensive chemical programs and reliance on mechanized production, using specialized equipment and facilities |
| Markets |
mostly local, direct to consumer, through on-farm stands and farmers' marketLhasa, Tibet. Farmers' markets are markets usually held outside where farmers can sell their produce to the public. Products at such markets are renowned for being locally-grown, very fresh and come direct to market without going through a middle man.s (see also local food) |
wholesale, with products distributed across huge territories (average supermarket produce travels hundreds to thousands of miles) |
The contrast is as much economic as it is between methods of production: to date, organic farming has remained typically small business, and conventional farming is big business (often called agribusiness). However, the situation is changing rapidly as consumer demand encourages large-scale organic production.
Development of organic farming techniques is also a function of economics. Most of the agricultural research over the last several decades has concentrated on chemical-based methods - little funding and effort have been put into using current scientific knowledge and tools to understand and advance organic agricultural approaches.
