Organic Farming

Organic Farming, production system that avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically produced inputs such as fertilizers, crop protection products, livestock feed additives, and some veterinary products. As far as possible, it relies on crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, and off-farm organic wastes to maintain soil structure and to supply plant nutrients. Crop rotation is more important than in conventional farming, and often a fertility building crop, such as clover, vetch, peas, or beans are included in the rotation to boost soil nitrogen levels. Rotations, together with biological methods of pest control, can also be effective in controlling some weeds, pests, and diseases. In addition, mechanical methods, such as harrowing, are also used to control weeds. In other respects, organic farming is similar to conventional farming: for example, in the United Kingdom, organic crop farmers use tractors, ploughs, cultivators, drills, and combine harvesters; organic dairy farmers use milking parlours and keep their animals in similar types of housing.

One of the major constraints in organic farming is the availability of nitrogen. In Western Europe, conventional farmers apply in the range of 150-200 kg (330-440 lb) of nitrogen per hectare of land on winter wheat. Advances in crop science also mean that farmers now only apply nitrogen fertilizer in the spring, when the crop needs it most. In contrast, it is much more difficult to consistently maintain soil nitrogen levels and match these with the crop’s requirements with organic systems. Furthermore, the need to grow fertility-building crops in rotation means that, over time, the yield of crops, such as wheat, by organic methods is much lower.

Organic farming methods are widely used in developing countries, partly because of a lack of synthetic products, such as man-made fertilizers and crop-protection products, and partly because farmers do not have access to the capital required to purchase them. They are becoming more widely accepted in developed countries as people become more concerned about the safety of the food they eat and the welfare conditions of animals farmed under more intensive modern farming conditions. The Soil Association, one of the organizations that represents British organic farmers, estimated that more than 50 per cent of baby food sold in the United Kingdom in 2004 was organic—an indication of the importance that consumers attach to such issues when it comes to food for young children.

Organic farming is known by different names in different countries, including biological farming, regenerative farming, and sustainable farming. Biological farming is the term most favoured in Europe, while the United Kingdom and the United States prefer organic farming. It is also known by the term biodynamic farming, although, strictly speaking, this is part of a whole philosophy that includes education, art, nutrition, and religion, as well as agriculture. Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian social philosopher and founder of anthroposophy, is acknowledged as the founder of biodynamic farming.

Much of the credit for the modern organic farming movement is attributed to Lady Eve Balfour, born at the end of the 19th century, the daughter of a wealthy British family, who, in addition to displaying talents as a jazz trombonist and pilot, took a keen interest in agriculture. Her research work in the 1920s and 1930s resulted in the seminal book The Living Soil, published in 1944. The interest this aroused led to the birth of the Soil Association in 1946. The Soil Association, along with other groups such as the British Organic Farmers and the Organic Growers Association, exists to research, develop, and promote sustainable relationships between the soil, plants, animals, people, and the biosphere, in order to produce healthy food and other products while protecting and enhancing the environment. A further major figure in the movement was the German writer and economist Ernst Schumacher who encapsulated much of the thinking behind a return to the soil in the book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, published in 1973.

Although used to some extent in most countries of the world, organic farming methods are mostly found in northern Europe, with Austria, which has about 13 per cent (2004) of its productive land area under organic systems, in the lead. Germany, Holland, and Denmark are also major organic producers. As of 2004, about 4 per cent of the United Kingdom's land area was farmed organically. In contrast, only 0.4 per cent of cropland in the United States was farmed organically in 2003, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

In Western countries, organic farming is often taken up by farmers who are looking for better financial returns than they can get from conventional farming. However, in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, the resulting increase in supply from the switch has reduced market prices: for example, organic milk prices in 2005 were in the region of 22 pence per litre, only 2 or 3 pence more than conventionally produced milk. Organic farmers also face more risk, as they are not able to control yields (for example, by controlling diseases) to the same extent as conventional farmers. Additionally, some studies have shown that organic farming is not always better for the environment: for example, greenhouse gas emissions per tonne produced can be higher than from conventional farming because average yields on organic farms are generally much lower than on conventional farms.

The United Kingdom Register of Organic Food Standards (UKROFS) was set up in 1987, and two years later published its standards for the industry based on guidelines laid down by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), an international charity founded in 1972. UKROFS was replaced in 2003 by the Advisory Committee on Organic Standards (ACOS). ACOS is a public body that advises government ministers in the United Kingdom on matters related to organic standards. In the European Union, organic farming is being promoted through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP); the Mid-Term Review reforms of the CAP in 2003 provided more funds for rural development, including support for existing organic farmers as well as funds for converting more land to organic production.