Organic Farming: Environmental Science and Philosophy

Introduction

Organic farming refers to a style of farming that avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms. Beyond this rule, organic farming comprises a wide range of techniques, many of which are as old as farming itself. These include fertilizing with animal waste, composting, hand weeding, mulching, and companion planting. Newer techniques promoted by organic farming include crop-rotation, conservation tillage (absence of or minimal use of mechanical tilling of soil), and new biologically derived pesticides.

The organic movement applies a cohesive philosophy to these techniques and a focus on developing a system of agriculture as an explicit alternative to conventional agriculture. The organic philosophy can be understood as follows: conventional agriculture treats the soil as an inert medium that will reliably transform chemical inputs into agricultural outputs, like a component in a machine. Problems such as nutrient deficiency or insect infestation are treated as endemic pathologies in constant need of treatment by way of various chemicals, and the farm is not seen as a cohesive interconnected system. By contrast, the organic method describes a radically different understanding of soil not as a machine, but as a living entity whose innate fertility can be enhanced through the proper techniques. The farm is understood as a responsive, living system and an effort is made to understand it as a whole rather than in isolated parts.

Historical Background and Scientific Foundations

Organic farming is not new. Although perceived to be a recent trend, the methods of agriculture that would be termed organic have, to a large extent, been in use since humans developed farming thousands of years ago. What is relatively new are the farming methods that have arisen in western society since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and ballooned in scale after World War II (1939–1945). These include mechanization, large-scale cultivation of a single crop, and the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms. This set of practices has come to be termed conventional agriculture.

The organic movement began from an ideological premise rather than a scientific one. Early thinkers of the organic movement—among them the botanist Albert Howard (1873–1947) and farmer Eve Balfour (1899–1990), both in England, and the Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner (1861–1925)—based their ideas on observation, yet they also relied on tradition and anecdotal evidence to support their claims. Howard traveled extensively in India and Asia documenting the efficacy of different agricultural methods throughout the world and used this to argue for the importance of manure and composting in organic farming. Balfour sought to remedy the recognized lack of scientific evidence for organic methods by founding an ongoing agricultural research project called the Haughley Experiment. Steiner, however, whose methods became known as biodynamic agriculture, promoted techniques that bordered on mysticism and could claim no basis in science.

Rigorous scientific experimentation on organic techniques began to develop in the 1940s with the emergence of the Rodale Institute. Founded by the American publisher J. I. Rodale (1898–1971) in Pennsylvania, the institute applied scientific rigor to identifying best practices in organic farming. The institute remains a leader in organic farming research. In addition, programs devoted to researching sustainable agriculture began to develop at universities in the 1990s. Despite institutional participation, exponential growth in the market for organic goods, and increased acres farmed organically, research into organic methods at land-grant universities in the United States totals less than 0.2% of all research acreage

WORDS TO KNOW

COMPOSTING: Breakdown of organic material by microorganisms.

RENEWABLE RESOURCE: Any resource that is renewed or replaced fairly rapidly (on human historical time-scales) by natural or managed processes.

RUNOFF: Water that falls as precipitation and then runs over the surface of the land rather than sinking into the ground.

SUSTAINABILITY: Practices that preserve the balance between human needs and the environment, as we

each year. Thus, institutional research lags well behind the public desire for information.

The organic movement was a reaction, not to a scientific discovery, but to the results of conventional agriculture, observed by its founders in the 1930s. By this time, the use of ammonia-based fertilizers and tractors had become widespread. Albert Howard whose book, An Agricultural Testament (1940) is widely considered foundational to the organic movement, argues that soil fertility is the foundation of sustainable agriculture and that conventional farming practices had been disastrous. He notes an increase in plant disease, extensive soil erosion, and a general loss of soil fertility. Lady Eve Balfour also makes reference to the consequences of modern farming in her book, The Living Soil (1942). She likewise notes erosio as evidenced by the dramatic Dustbowl phenomena of the 1930s, and she points out the disturbing process of desertification underway in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, whereby semi-arid land becomes desert largely through land mismanagement by humans. These alarming phenomena appeared to be the direct result of poor agricultural practices, making the need for alternatives obvious.

Since those early years, the scale and impact of conventional agriculture have grown. The Green Revolution, an effort begun in the 1940s and continuing today, sought to increase global capacity for food production through the expanded use of agrochemicals, mechanization, irrigation, and new plant varieties.

Impacts and Issues

Mounting concerns about climate change, environmental degradation, and food safety have fueled increased interest in organic products and farming methods. The scientific community is also responding to organic farming as a possible solution to environmental problems with increased research into its purported benefits.

The claims of environmental disaster propounded by Howard and Balfour have now been confirmed and added to by experts citing evidence that conventional agriculture is responsible for soil run-off, waterway contamination (including a phenomenon known as the Gulf Dead Zone in which fertilizer run-off leads to water with so little oxygen that fish cannot survive), soil erosion, increased soil salinity, loss of genetic diversity, and an unsustainable reliance on fossil fuel inputs. These claims

are countered by claims that conventional agriculture is the only method capable of successfully feeding the burgeoning human population. The debate is ongoing.

Organic practitioners suggest that simply eschewing inorganic chemicals in agriculture is not enough to correct the depletion of soil fertility and other problems caused by conventional methods. Soil health must be maintained through practices that promote the production of humus—the organic material that provides structure, nutrients, and a medium for the population of living organisms within soil. Humus is a mixture of partially decomposed plant and animal matter in addition to the organisms that break it down into nutrients usable to plants. Humus acts to bind soil particles into aggregates to improve airflow and drainage through soil. At the same time, it acts as a sponge, retaining water needed for plants. Without it, soil structure degrades and is more vulnerable to erosion, drought conditions, and increased run-of pollutants, and it can no longer support life. Conventional synthetic fertilizers provide nutrients to plants in the form of salts that dissolve into the soil; however they contribute nothing to soil structure. Organic fertilizing techniques—including composting, manuring, and mulching—are designed specifically to add nutrients to the soil in a way that also builds humus. Emerging science will shed light on whether organic agriculture’s focus on soil health and avoidance of synthetic chemicals can indeed solve current environmental problems and prove to be a sustainable, viable alternative to conventional agriculture.

Since 1980, organic farming has come under the umbrella of the larger concept of sustainable agriculture. Sustainability is understood as a broader concept than organic, referring to practices that use resources in a way that can be sustained in the future; for example, through the use of a renewable resource rather than nonrenewable fossil fuels. Sustainable agriculture does not prohibit specific practices as organic agriculture does; however, it maintains the understanding of the farm as an interconnected system and in turn, the farm as part of the larger global ecology.

See Also Corporate Green Movement; Organic and Locally Grown Foods

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Balfour, Eve. The Living Soil. London: Faber and Faber, 1948.

Periodicals

Trewaves, Anthony. “Urban Myths of Organic Farming.” Nature 410: 409–410.

Web Sites

University of California Berkley: College of Natural Resources. “Can Organic Farming Feed the World?” http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/christos/articles/cv_organic_farming.html (accessed April 1, 2008).

Angela Fedor