A lot of folks, when they hear the word “Organic Farming”, think of an unwashed young person in hemp clothing hoeing a row of Swiss Chard by hand on a commune before heading off to a tasty lunch of an alfalfa grass smoothie. Well, there is nothing wrong with Swiss chard, alfalfa grass, or for that matter, hemp clothing. But such a tableau hardly describes the state of organic farming today. While some traditional practices of pre-industrial farming may be used by organic farmers, organic farming today uses many modern scientific methods to harvest agricultural products that are superior in nutrition, while having much lower or nonexistent pesticide residues, and do this while preserving the land for future harvests.
In fact, organic farming could also be called “farming for the long term”. Conventional farming techniques rely on large amounts of synthetic “inputs”. That is to say, in order to induce the soil to produce large quantities of product, increasing amounts of fertilizer must be applied to offset the depleting of naturally occurring nutrients in the soil, Pest and weed control are achieved through application of synthetic pesticides and herbicides. In the short term, these methods have increased crop production and proved highly labor efficient. Over a period of many years; however, these methods have created concern about their long term viability. Specifically, as the soil loses organic material, erosion increases and more fertilizer must be used to achieve the same output. Repeated applications of pesticides and herbicides result in pests and weeds with increasing resistance to these substances, as well as increased residue on the crops. (1) Finally, these chemicals run off into streams and lakes. Buildup of nitrogen, a key ingredient in all fertilizers, in ecosystems has been identified as a global problem. (2) In short, a vicious cycle is set up where more and more synthetic chemicals are required to produce the same level of crops. So while intensive, conventional farming techniques are highly efficient in the short run, they lead to long-term erosion and degradation of soils in the longer term, not to mention the water pollution that inevitably ensues.
In contrast, organic farming concentrates on maintaining the health and productivity of the soil year after year. While organic farming is more labor intensive than conventional techniques, it requires less capital investment and energy use. In addition, the cost of organic farming is a true reflection of the cost of producing the crop, while many of the costs of producing food by conventional methods are passed to society at large through higher levels of runoff and air pollution, as well as the health effects of long term exposure to chemical pesticides. If these societal costs were factored into the cost of conventionally grown food, its true cost would be estimated to be equal or perhaps greater than the cost of growing food organically. (3)
(1) Long Term effects of organic and conventional farming on soil erosion. http://agdb.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/19192/1/IND87085567.pdf
(2) NUTRIENT OVERLOAD: UNBALANCING THE GLOBAL NITROGEN CYCLE http://earthtrends.wri.org/features/view_feature.php?theme=8&fid=1
(3) Organic Farming Research Foundation-Frequently asked questions http://ofrf.org/resources/organicfaqs.html