History
The history of organic farming is largely the history of the organic movement, which started as a reaction against large-scale agriculture. The movement can be traced back to England, around the 1920s, when individuals began to speak out against a variety of agricultural "innovations".
One of the early pioneers of organic farming, Sir Albert Howard, is often referred to as the father of modern organic agriculture. He began as a British botanist, working as an agricultural adviser in India, where he observed traditional Indian farming practices, and came to regard them as superior to his conventional agriculture science. He documented and developed these organic farming methods. His writings, and notably, the 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament, influenced many scientists and farmers of the day.
In Germany, Rudolf Steiner's development biodynamic farming was probably the first comprehensive organic farming system.
In 1939, strongly influenced by Sir Howard's work, Lady Eve Balfour launched the Haughley Experiment on farmland in England. It was the first scientific, side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming. Four years later, she published The Living Soil, based on the initial findings of the Haughley Experiment. It was widely read, and lead to the formation of a key international organic advocacy group, the Soil Association.
The first wide usage of the term organic farming is usually credited to appears to Lord Northbourn in his book Look to the Land (1940), where he described a holistic, ecologically-balanced approach to farming.
As a trained scientist, Howard applied Western scientific thinking to study and develop traditional methods, while most research and development concentrated on the new, chemical-based approach. This fundamental split in how science viewed agriculture is largely responsible for the organic vs chemical situation of today.
In a parallel development in Japan, Masanobu Fukuoka, a microbiologist working in soil science and plant pathology, began to doubt the modern agricultural movement. In the early 1940s, he quit his job as a research scientist, returned to his family's farm, and devoted the next 30 years to developing a radical no-till organic method for growing grain, now known as Fukuoka farming.
Technological advances during World War II produced two chemicals, used in quantity for warfare, that were found to have agricultural uses. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became a cheap source of nitrogen, one of the main plant nutrients. And DDT, used to control disease-carrrying insects, became a general pesticide.
At the same time, increasingly powerful and sophisticated farm machinery allowed a single farmer to work ever larger areas of land. Fields grew larger, and agribusiness as we know it today was well on its way. The Green Revolution, launched in Mexico in 1944 with private funding from the US, encouraged the development of hybrid plants, chemical controls, large-scale irrigation, and heavy mechanization around the world.
During the 1950s, sustainable agriculture was a topic of scientific interest, but science tended to concentrate on the new chemical approaches. In the US, J.I. Rodale began to popularize the term and methods of organic growing.
In 1962, Rachel Carson, a prominent scientist and naturalist, published Silent Spring, chronicling the effects of DDT and other pesticides on the environment. A bestseller in many countries, including the US, and widely read around the world, Silent Spring was instrumental in the US government's 1972 banning of DDT. The book and its author are often credited with launching the worldwide environmental movement.
In the 1970s, worldwide movements concerned with the pollutionn and the environment increased attention on organic farming. As the distinction between organic and conventional food became clear, one goal of the organic movement was to encourage consumption of locally grown food, which was promoted through slogans such as "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food".
In 1975, Fukuoka released his first book, One Straw Revolution, with a wide effect on the agricultural world. His approach to primarily grain production emphasized small scale, meticulous balance of the local farming ecosystem, and a minimum of human interference and labor.
In the 1980s, around the world, various farming and consumer groups began seriously pressuring for government regulation of organic production. This led to various legislation and certification standards being enacted through the 1990s and to date.
Since the early 1990s, the retail market for organic farming in developed economies has been growing by about 20% annually due to increasing consumer demand. Concern for the quality and safety of food, and the potential for environmental damage, are apparently responsible for this trend.
Throughout this history, the focus of scientific agricultural research, and the majority of publicized scientific findings, has been on chemical, not organic farming. One recent survey of the UK's leading government funding agency for bioscience research and training indicated 26 GM crop projects, and only one related to organic agriculture.[1] This imbalance is largely due to economic forces, as large food producing businesses have consistently invested in funding specific types of research, shaping government regulations, and promoting, and has profoundly shaped food production and public perception.
Today, organic farming is the focus of much public attention and agricultural industry debate. To date, the rise of organic farming has been driven by small, independent producers, and consumers. In recent years, explosive organic market growth has encouraged the participation of agribusiness interests, and they may soon dominate organics. As the volume and variety of "organic" products increases, the viability of the small organic farm is at risk, and the meaning of organic farming as an agricultural method is ever more easily confused with the related but separate areas of organic food and organic certification.
Issues
Intense and escalating debate surrounds all aspects of organic farming and organic food. Environmentalists, food safety advocates, various consumer protection, social justice and labor groups, small independent farmers, and a growing number of food consumers - among others - are ranged against agribusiness and many existing and proposed government agricultural policies.
The controversy centers around the overall value and safety of chemical agriculture, with organic farming popularly regarded as the "opposite" of modern, large-scale, chemical-based, vertically integrated, corporate food production. As public awareness increases, several factors act as obstacles to an easy understanding of the overall situation.
In recent decades, food production has moved away from the public eye. In developed nations, where most of the world's wealth, consumption, and agricultural policy-making are centered, many people are no longer aware of how their food is produced, or even that food, like energy, is not unlimited. If the methods used to produce food are rapidly destroying the capacity for continued production, then sustainable, organic farming is as critical a topic as renewable energy and pollution control. This proposition is at the center of most organic farming issues.
In terms of the debate, it is useful to make a distinction between organic farming and organic food. Whether organic food is tastier or safer or more nutritious has nothing to do with the effects of chemical agriculture on the environment. And, most food dollars are spent on processed food products, the manufacture of which is beyond the scope of farming. There are separate food and farming issues - lumping the two together only confuses the discussion.
Another important distinction lies between organic farming and organic certification. Defining organic farming with checklists of acceptable and prohibited inputs and practices runs into some of the same criticisms aimed at chemical farming. With rules come exceptions, whether well-intentioned or purely profit-oriented, and critics hold that this can only undermine organic principles. For example, in some organic standards, compost made from sewage is acceptable, a decision based on best-guess science (that the carryover of unacceptable inputs is negligible) and necessity. Exceptions like this often seem necessary to make certified organic farming commercially viable for independent farmers, although they might be questionable to the consumer. Certification also allows agribusiness to lobby for favorable definitions - anything that can be approved becomes "organic".
Of course, the issues, particularly the social ones, will shift if agribusiness fully adapts to and dominates organic farming. Then, large-scale, certified organic farms would probably operate much more like conventional farms today. Environmental benefits may accrue from a change in types of pesticides and fertilizer used, more crop diversity, and the like, but if the overall agribusiness philosophy remains essentially unchanged, "organic farming" could become the norm, without any great environmental or social improvements.
In any case, here are a number of specific topics, argued from, and supporting, both sides.
Pesticides
Organic farming does not result in the release of synthetic pesticides into the food supply or the environment, nor the leaching of artificial fertilizer. It does, however, allow the release of what are described as natural pesticides. Critics claim that many synthetic pesticides are improvements on natural pesticides, with the goal of making them less dangerous to humans and more environmentally friendly, and that the distinction between "artificial" and "natural" pesticides is arbitrary and no basis in their safety to humans and the environment. Organic advocates in turn respond that they use natural pesticides as a last resort, rather controlling pests through growing healthier, disease-resistant plants, using cover crops and crop rotation, and encouraging beneficial insects and birds. Organic pesticides include Bt, petroleum oil, soybean oil, pyrethrum, and rotenone. A new non-toxic insecticide based on kaolin clay, that forms a physical barrier to pest insects is rapidly increasing in use in both organic and conventional farming.
Another argument against organic farming is that while it works acceptably at present because pests are kept under control in surrounding conventional farms and thus do not spread into organic farms, if it became universal, the "islands" they operate on would disappear and pests would become a severe issue. (This also works in reverse, as organic farms can be islands of safety for predator insects and pollinators.)
Genetically modified organisms
A key characteristic of organic farming is its rejection of genetically engineered products, including plants and animals. "GMO-free" is also a popular marketing point for organic food. Actively avoiding GM seeds, growth hormones and the like represents one aspect. Less publicized, but with potentially greater effect, is the contamination of organic farms with GM product. The mechanism of cross-contamination is not understood, and only beginning to be studied. Meanwhile, cases of cross-contamination have been documented, while the extent is still unclear. A first-time study of genetic cross-contamination, published in Feb-2004, f
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