In organic farming, crops, meat and other food are produced without chemicals.

Fertilizers,
pesticides, growth hormones and antibiotics are forbidden. During thousands of years of
civilization the raising of animals and growing of plants have always been organic.

Chemicals for farming first came up at the turn of the 20th century. Widespread use of
chemicals began after World War II.

In the 1950s and 60s farmers started using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Recently,
however, more and more farmers have been returning to more natural ways of producing
farm products.

Organic farming methods

Instead of chemicals, organic farming uses a lot of organic matter to give crops the
nutrients that they need to grow. Clover, for example, has a lot of nitrogen in it and farmers
use it to make the soil better. Manure from animals and compost are also used to enrich the
soil. These fertilizers also help conserve the soil, not destroy it after a few years.

Organic farmers also use crop rotation to preserve the good qualities of soils and avoid
monoculture.

Chemical pesticides destroy or weaken many of the natural enemies of pests, like birds or
frogs. They also can kill those insects that control a great number of pests.

Organic farming creates new living areas for wasps, bugs, beetles and flies by giving them
water and food.

Weeds are controlled by using special machines. Hay, straw and wood chips are put between
the rows of plants to stop weeding.

Many agricultural products can be produced in an organic way. Meat, dairy products and
eggs come from animals that are fed organically and can graze outdoors. They live in
conditions that are natural to them. Cows, for example, are kept in pastures and fields.
Vegetables and fruit are also produced with organic methods.

Conventional vs. organic farming

Conventional farmers

apply chemical fertilizers to soil to grow crops

spray crops with insecticides and pesticides to prevent them from being damaged by
pests and disease

use herbicides to stop the growth of weeds

Organic farmers

build soil with natural fertilizers in order to grow crops

rely on the natural enemies of pests

use crop rotation to conserve soil

pull out weeds by hand

Advantages of organic farming

Farmers can reduce their production costs because they do not need to buy expensive
chemicals and fertilizers.

Healthier farm workers.

In the long term , organic farms save energy and protect the environment.

It can slow down global warming.

Fewer residues in food.

More animals and plants can live in the same place in a natural way. This is called
biodiversity.

Pollution of ground water is stopped.

Disadvantages of organic farming

Organic food is more expensive because farmers do not get as much out of their land
as conventional farmers do. Organic products may cost up to 40% more.

Production costs are higher because farmers need more workers .

Marketing and distribution is not efficient because organic food is produced in

smaller amounts.

Food illnesses may happen more often.

Organic farming cannot produce enough food that the worlds population needs to
survive. This could lead to starvation in countries that produce enough food today.
About 1-2% of the worlds food is produced with organic methods. The market however is
growing very quickly - by about 20% a year. In Europe, Austria (11%), Italy (9%) and the
Czech Republic (7%) are the countries in which organic food production as it its highest.

Im sure you have all heard of the term organic at least once or twice. The organic
craze is rapidly growing in popularity, but in fact, organic farming has been around
forever. The word organic simply means that nothing unnatural, toxic, or harmful are
used in any step of the production process. Organic produce is different from normal
produce in a wide variety of ways, but not all of these differences are very significant
at all. In order to better understand just how beneficial organic farming is we have to
look at both sides of the fence.

The Advantages of Organic Farming

1. No Poison Is Always Great

Organic farming does not use any type of harmful chemicals to keep pests away,
unlike the majority of industrial farming. They use all natural methods that do not
harm the consumer or the environment that they are grown in. Herbicides, pesticides,
and artificial growth hormones are all forbidden on an organic farm.

2. Closely Regulated
In order for a food to be labeled as organic, the entire process of which is was created
is thoroughly investigated. The organic food industry is internationally regulated,
which means that organic means the same standards where followed, no matter where
in the world it was made. This helps the consumers to know that they are truly getting
what they think that they are.

3. Better Taste and More Nutrition

Fruits and vegetables that are organically raised have a much better taste than other
mechanically farmed ones. This is due to the fact that they are given a much longer
time to develop and are not pumped with artificial things. The sugar structures in
these crops have more time to mature and develop into a tasty and nutritious product.

4. Costs Are Lowered

There is a deep stigma around anything organic that it had to have cost an arm and a
leg to cultivate. This is actually the opposite of the truth. When you cut out the time
that is spent to farm organic crops, the actual costs are minimal. These farmers do not
have to shell out large amounts of money for expensive chemicals and massive
amounts of water, unlike industrial farmers.

5. The Environment Doesnt Suffer

Another thing that benefits from the use of organic farming is the environment! In
industrial farms, the chemicals that are used are seep into the ground and contaminate
the soil and local water sources. Humans, animals, and plant life are all affected
 negatively by this. With organic farming, there are no chemicals used, so no pollution
occurs either.

The Disadvantages of Organic Farming

1. Its a Whole Lot More Work

It takes a whole lot of hard work to successfully grow crops organically. There is a
high amount of farmer interaction time with their crops. Whether it be to ensure that
the plants remain pest free in an organic way, or to act as weed prevention, the time
required is significantly higher than plants and crops produced industrially.

2. The Consumer Pays The Price

Organic foods in the supermarket are infamously higher than others. This is one of the
biggest reasons that people do not fully support the use of organic farming, and not
nearly enough people are enjoying the great benefits that it could bring. For example,
a pound of non organic red peppers cost right around $2.76, while a pound of organic
red peppers run a whopping $5.89! Thats double the price!

3. Cross Breeding Happens

GMO crops, also known as genetically modified crops, are plants whose DNA
structure have been altered. These seeds, once planted, create GMO crops. These
crops then produce seeds and the patter continues. It is very difficult to truly tell if an
organic seed has not been affected by GMOs in anyway. This cross breeding could
completely wipe out the idea of organic and non GMO crops very soon.

Important Facts About Organic Farming

The Green Revolution in the 1940s spurred on the organic food movement.
Many people believe that the environmental benefits that are gained from organic
farming are offset by the pollution caused when transporting it.
In order for a chicken to be labeled as organic it cannot live any part of its life
inside of a cage.
The use of organic farming actually helps to greatly improve the soil quality of
whatever area that it is done in.

Advantages and Disadvantages Organic Farming

Despite the good things about organic farming why do most farmers still operate by
industrialized agriculture?
Here we explore the pros and cons organic farming presents for consumers and
producers, as well as examining the environmental effects of organic farming.

GOOD THINGS ABOUT ORGANIC FARMING

CONSUMER BENEFITS:
Nutrition
 The nutritional value of food is largely a function of its vitamin and mineral content.
In this regard, organically grown food is dramatically superior in mineral content to
that grown by modern conventional methods.
Because it fosters the life of the soil organic farming reaps the benefits soil life offers
in greatly facilitated plant access to soil nutrients.
Healthy plants mean healthy people, and such better nourished plants provide better
nourishment to people and animals alike.

Poison-free
A major benefit to consumers of organic food is that it is free of contamination with
health harming chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.
As you would expect of populations fed on chemically grown foods, there has been a
profound upward trend in the incidence of diseases associated with exposure to toxic
chemicals in industrialized societies.
Take cancer for example. Representative data on the number of new cancer cases in
New South Wales, Australia has been collected by the New South Wales Central
Cancer Registry.
Adjusted to take account of our aging population, their graph (above) shows that
between 1972 and 2004 the incidence of new cancer cases per year (average for both
sexes) has risen from 323 to 488 per 100,000 people. This is an increase of over 50%
in just 32 years. advantages and disadvantages organic farming
Food Tastes Better Animals and people have the sense of taste to allow them to
discern the quality of the food they ingest.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, that organically grown food tastes better than that
conventionally grown. The tastiness of fruit and vegetables is directly related to its
sugar content, which in turn is a function of the quality of nutrition that the plant itself
has enjoyed.
This quality of fruit and vegetable can be empirically measured by subjecting its juice
to Brix analysis, which is a measure of its specific gravity (density). The Brix score is
widely used in testing fruit and vegetables for their quality prior to export.
Food Keeps Longer
Organically grown plants are nourished naturally, rendering the structural and
metabolic integrity of their cellular structure superior to those conventionally grown.
As a result, organically grown foods can be stored longer and do not show the latters
susceptibility to rapid mold and rotting.
GROWER BENEFITS:
A healthy plant grown organically in properly balanced soil resists most diseases and
insect pests.
This was proven by US doctor and soil nutrition pioneer Dr Northern who conducted
many experiments to test the hypothesis during the 1930s.
Disease and Pest Resistance
For instance, in an orange grove infested with scale, he restored the mineral balance to
part of the soil and the trees growing in that part became clean while the rest remained
diseased.
By the same means he grew healthy rosebushes between rows that were riddled by
insects, and tomato and cucumber plants, both healthy and diseased, where the vines
intertwined. Northern observed that the bugs ate up the diseased and refused to touch
the healthy plants!
 Weed Competitiveness
Weeds are natures band-aids, placed by the wisdom of creation to heal and restore
damaged soils. When farmers husband the life of the soil, as they do in organic
agriculture, the improved conditions dissuade many weeds and favor their crops. The
crops, being healthier, are also better able to compete with those weeds that are
present.
Lower Input Costs
By definition, organic farming does not incur the use of expensive agrichemicals
they are not permitted! The greater resistance of their crops to pests and the diseases
save farmers significantly in expensive insecticides, fungicides and other pesticides.
Fertilizers are either created in situ by green manuring and leguminous crop rotation
or on-farm via composting and worm farming. Biodynamic farmers use a low cost
microbial solution sprayed onto their crops.
The creation of living, fertile soil conditions through early corrective soil re-
mineralization and strategic Keyline chisel ploughing are significant establishment
costs that, however, reap ongoing benefits to production at minimal maintenance.
Drought Resistance
Organically grown plants are more drought tolerant. This was dramatically illustrated
to me several years ago when I was fortunate to attend a workshop with Australian
organic gardening guru Peter Bennett. A slide he showed us has stuck in my mind
ever since: it was a field of wheat, organically grown on re-mineralized soil.
Bisecting the ripening green crop was a wide yellowed strip that had already finished
growing and hayed off. He explained that the strip had been nourished using
agrichemical fertilizer early in the growing period.
Because chemical fertilizer is soluble, plants are forced to imbibe it every time they
are thirsty for water. They can and do enjoy good growth as long as water is readily
available. As soon as water becomes limited, however, the soluble nutrient salts in the
cells of chemically fed plants are unable to osmotically draw sufficient water to
maintain safe dilution. They soon reach toxic concentrations, and the plant stops
growing, hays off and dies earlier than it otherwise would have.
Added Value
There is a discerning market of consumers who recognize the greater food value of
organic produce and are willing to pay premium prices for it. In an interview with me
in 1998, the manager of Heinz-Watties in New Zealand explained how his company
had been actively supporting and recruiting farmers to organic production in order to
service large and lucrative markets in Japan and Europe.
ORGANIC FARMING DISADVANTAGES
Productivity
Proponents of industrialized agriculture point to its superior productivity. In the short
term, this yield is possible by expending massive inputs of chemicals and machinery,
working over bland fields of a single crop (monoculture).
However, over the longer time frame, productivity advantages dwindle. In my years
working with broadacre farmers in the wheatbelt of WA, it was common for them to
remark on how much richer pastures and crops were in their youth.
Industrialized agriculture thrashes the land, and diminishes its soil life to the point
where it can no longer function to convert available organic matter into soil fertility.
Productivity begins to wane, and attempts to bolster it with increasing chemical inputs
(common advice from farm consultants) has a similar effect to flogging a dead horse.
 Because it relies on living soil to build fertility, the benefits of organic farming for soil
life is fundamental to its methods.
Organic farming benefits food production without destroying our environmental
resources, ensuring sustainability for not only the current but also future generations.
Cultivation
While their conventional counterparts may sow by direct drilling of seed into
herbicide treated soils, organic farmers are usually at least partly dependent on
cultivation to remove weeds prior to sowing. In contrast to cultivation, direct drilling
does not mechanically disrupt soil structure and removes the risk of exposed soil
being lost to wind or water erosion.
This is a valid argument where farmers are working marginal quality soils. However,
the structure of agrichemically-deadened soils is weakened by the corresponding loss
of soil life and thus unable to maintain its integrity under occasional cultivation. So
its a circular argument!
Structurally sound (life-rich) soils may be cultivated regularly without significant
damage, particularly if protected appropriately by windbreaks and Keyline soil
conservation measures.
Even the need to cultivate may be questioned After noticing rice thriving wild
amongst weeds on roadsides, Japanese alternative agriculturalist Masanobu Fukuoka
succeeded in establishing crops by broadcasting seed coated in clay onto untilled land.
GM Crops
Organic growers do not use genetically modified or engineered food crops, some of
which are engineered to tolerate herbicides (e.g. Roundup Ready Canola) or resist
pests (e.g. Bollworm resistant cotton). Conventional growers, on the other hand, are
free to take advantage of GM crops.
According to a report from the Directorate-General for Agriculture of the European
Commission, productivity gains attributed to GM crops are usually negligible when
growing conditions, farmer experience and soil types are factored in, and are often in
fact negative. The main advantage farmers using such crops gain is convenience only.
There are worrying indications that GM crops may be associated with harm to both
human health and the environment. The main concern is that once they are released it
is nigh impossible to un-release them.
Time
Indeed, organic farming requires greater interaction between a farmer and his crop for
observation, timely intervention and weed control for instance. It is inherently more
labor intensive than chemical/mechanical agriculture so that, naturally a single farmer
can produce more crop using industrial methods than he or she could by solely
organic methods.
Skill
It requires considerably more skill to farm organically. However, because professional
farming of any sort naturally imparts a close and observant relationship to living
things, the best organic farmers are converted agrichemical farmers.
Organic farmers do not have some convenient chemical fix on the shelf for every
problem they encounter. They have to engage careful observation and greater
understanding in order to know how to tweak their farming system to correct the
cause of the problem rather than simply putting a plaster over its effect.
This is a bigger issue during the conversion period from conventional to wholly
organic when both the learning curve and transition related problems are peaking (it
 takes time to build a healthy farm ecosystem that copes well without synthetic
crutches). Organic farmers I have interviewed report that their most valuable remedies
and advice come from other organic farmers.

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ORGANIC FARMING

Climate Friendly
The synthetic inputs upon which conventional agriculture is so dependent are energy
expensive to mine and manufacture. Today the embodied energy of industrial
agriculture uses up 9 calories for every 1 calorie of food that it produces!
Organic agriculture with its low input needs of naturally derived substances produces
less greenhouse gas emissions and is considerably more climate friendly.
Ecologically Friendly
It doesnt use soluble fertilizers
Though rarely acknowledged, the chief source of the annual algae blooms that plague
Perths major river (the Swan) is conventional agriculture.
Farmers pour tons of phosphate and nitrogenous fertilizer on their cropping lands
every year. Because it is soluble, much of this fertilizer is either washed off the soil
surface and into waterways (especially phosphates) or leaches through the soil profile
beyond the reach of plants and finds its way less directly into waterways (especially
nitrates). Nitrate contamination of groundwater (indicated by >10 mg/L nitrate) in
Australia is widespread in every state and territory, occurring over regional and local
scales (LWRRDC 1999). In many areas, the concentration is greater than the recently
revised Australian Drinking Water Guidelines level of 50 mg/L nitrate (as nitrate),
resulting in groundwater that is unfit for drinking. In some of the more contaminated
areas, the concentration is in excess of 100 mg/L (LWRRDC 1999).
With fresh water reserves under increasing pressure from climate change this is a
grave situation for humanity.
The soluble nutrient pollutants that contaminate surface waters fuel the overgrowth of
algae. What is not used up by algae in fresh waterways, spews out into the ocean
where it supports the growth of algae on sea plants and coral reef systems. This blocks
access to sunlight, causing whatever it smothers to die.
Eighty percent of the seagrass meadows in Perths Cockburn Sound an important
nursery habitat for wild fish stocks - have been decimated due to this process which is
called eutrophication.
It doesnt use pesticides or herbicides
Another pollution disaster caused by agrichemical use is the contamination of
groundwater reserves with poisonous nasties, particularly (in Australia) Atrazine and
Simazine, but also Dieldrin, Chlorpyriphos, Amitrol, Metolachlor, Trifluraline and
Diuron Dieldrin, Lindane, and Alachlor.
While systematic monitoring of pesticide contamination of groundwater in Australia
is limited, available tests have detected pesticides in at least 20% of samples,
indicating significant contamination (Australia State of the Environment Report
2001).
Groundwater studies in the US have found similarly significant contamination. In
Carolina, for example, over 27% of wells sampled in 1997 were found to be
contaminated with pesticides predominantly from routine agricultural usage.
 There is no economically viable method to clean up widespread contamination.
Pesticide contamination poses a serious, unreasonable public health threat to current
and future ground water users.
Synthetic agrichemicals (and most plastics widely used in our society) are derived
from oil, and thus a source of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (especially
xenoestrogens) in the environment. Distorted sex organ development and function in
alligators has been related to a major pesticide spill into a lake in Florida, U.S.A.
There is also evidence to link xenoestrogens to a range of human medical concerns,
particularly reproductive problems such as reduced sperm count in men and breast
cancer in women.

Even the safest herbicides such as Roundup (glycophosphate) the second most widely
used in the USA - are now known to pose a danger to wetland ecologies, and can totally
decimate frog populations at routine

ORGANIC FARMING AND PEAK OIL

Agrichemical farming is extremely energy reliant, particularly in the extraction,
manufacture and processing of the synthetic chemicals upon which it is so dependent.
In a world of diminishing oil supplies the days of chemical agriculture are numbered!
One has only to study the experience of Cuba to know this is so. In the early 1990s
Cuba had the most industrialized agriculture in Latin America, fueled by cheap,
readily available Soviet oil. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, this supply was
cut, virtually overnight.
At first Cuba was faced with dire food shortages, and despite rationing the average
Cuban lost 10 kilograms in weight! Hungry people responded by becoming farmers
lawyers, teachers, truck drivers everyone learned to garden!
Under the community-focused direction of its socialist leadership, Cuba rapidly made
a successful transition to organic agriculture and more labor intensive methods,
including reintroducing the use of bullocks in the cultivation of crops.
This is the near future that awaits us all. Do you believe our corporation-serving
governments will so decisively lead us through it? Will you be ready for it?
Return from ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES ORGANIC FARMING to
ORGANIC FARMING