Concept

Organic farming

Overview

Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming, or biological farming, is an agricultural system that emphasizes the use of naturally occurring, non-synthetic inputs, such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation, companion planting, and mixed cropping. Biological pest control methods, such as the fostering of insect predators, are also encouraged. Organic agriculture can be defined as "an integrated farming system that strives for sustainability, the enhancement of soil fertility and biological diversity while, with rare exceptions, prohibiting synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, and growth hormones". It originated early in the 20th century in reaction to rapidly changing farming practices. In 2019, the global area dedicated to certified organic agriculture amounted to 70 million hectares (170 million acres), with more than half of this area being in Australia.

Organic standards are designed to allow the use of naturally occurring substances while prohibiting or severely limiting synthetic substances. For instance, naturally occurring pesticides, such as garlic extract, bicarbonate of soda, or pyrethrin (which is found naturally in the Chrysanthemum flower), are permitted, while synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, such as glyphosate, are prohibited. Synthetic substances that are allowed only in exceptional circumstances may include copper sulfate, elemental sulfur, and veterinary drugs. Genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, human sewage sludge, plant growth regulators, hormones, and antibiotic use in livestock husbandry are prohibited. Broadly, organic agriculture is based on the principles of health, care for all living beings and the environment, ecology, and fairness. Organic methods champion sustainability, self-sufficiency, autonomy and independence, health, animal welfare, food security, and food safety. It is often seen as part of the solution to the impacts of climate change.

Organic agricultural methods are internationally regulated and legally enforced by transnational organizations such as the European Union and also by individual nations, based in large part on the standards set by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), an international umbrella organization for organic farming organizations established in 1972, with regional branches such as IFOAM Organics Europe and IFOAM Asia. Since 1990, the market for organic food and other products has grown rapidly, reaching $150 billion worldwide in 2022 – of which more than $64 billion was earned in North America and EUR 53 billion in Europe. This demand has driven a similar increase in organically managed farmland, which grew by 26.6 percent from 2021 to 2022. As of 2022, organic farming is practiced in 188 countries and approximately 96,000,000 hectares (240,000,000 acres) worldwide were farmed organically by 4.5 million farmers, representing approximately 2 percent of total world farmland.

Organic farming can be beneficial on biodiversity and environmental protection at local level; however, because organic farming can produce lower yields compared to intensive farming, leading to increased pressure to convert more non-agricultural land to agricultural use in order to produce similar yields, it can cause loss of biodiversity and negative climate effects.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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Carbon presents itself in the three unlike conditions of diamond, graphite, and charcoal. Under certain circumstances, oxygen takes on the form in which it is called ozone. Sulphur and phosphorus (both, in small proportions, essential constituents of organic matter) have allotropic modifications. Silicon, too, is allotropic; while its oxide, silica, which is an indispensable constituent of many lower organisms…
Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1
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It lowers the price of vegetable food; because, by increasing the fertility of the land, it increases its abundance. The improvements of agriculture, too, introduce many sorts of vegetable food, which requiring less land, and not more labour than corn, come much cheaper to market. Such are potatoes and maize, or what is called Indian corn, the two most important improvements which the agriculture of Europe, perhaps…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
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In one way or the other, the increased population is provided for, and all are as well off as before. But if the growth of human power over nature is suspended or slackened, and population does not slacken its increase; if, with only the existing command over natural agencies, those agencies are called upon for an…
John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Environmental sociology.

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