The true nature of organic farming is under assault. It always has been since it became a commercial venture.
So, what constitutes "organic" in farming? It has deep roots, worldwide, especially in small-scale family and community farming. Wikipedia states: "Traditional farming (of many particular kinds in different eras and places) was the original type of agriculture, and has been practiced for thousands of years. All traditional farming is now considered to be 'organic farming'."
Traditional, organic farming is anchored in the soil, a highly complex amalgam of minerals (rock, clay, sand, silt), water, air, organic matter like decomposing plants, animal manure, micro-organisms, worms, live insects, bacteria, fungal mycorhizzi that has evolved over centuries. Soil evolves with the cycle of the seasons guided by the movement of celestial bodies. Traditional organic farming takes place outdoors with plants and animals exposed to the full spectrum of elements (sun, rain, wind, dew, and, yes, here in Canada, snow and ice). No synthetic additives (chemicals, hormones, steroids) are utilized or sought. Fertility depends on plant compost and animal manure and resilient seed.
In the 1990s, the first regulations came into force with their de-centralized, sometimes heavy-handed mechanisms and provisions based on a very non-holistic reductionism. (Nature, conversely and, by extension, organics, is far from being simplistic). Certification, verification, commodification, standards, advocates, consultants, lawyers, government agencies and departments, third-party certifiers, now all claim their piece of a pie that expanded with all the resources and money thrown at it. With regulation came vested interests. Conventional industrialized agriculture, indoor vertical urban farms, hydroponics, aquaponics, all sought in on the lucrative "organic" markets. They were out to co-opt and take a slice of the pie that was not theirs. The result was many organic farmers opting out of (or not opting into) the regulatory system, creating a stream of non-certified farmers operating using organic methods. In Ontario, unlike other jurisdictions, organic labelling is still not policed within the province in spite of much advocacy. With powerful lobbies, political clout, and deep pockets everywhere, existing standards were challenged, diluted and made inclusive to their lower threshold. Now, in the USA (but not yet in Canada), hydroponic agriculture has been sanctioned as allowable under Organic Standards. This is one reductionist method too far removed from the true definition of holistic organic farming. We need a line in the sand.
The four principles of organic agriculture are as follows:
The Principle of Health - Organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal and human as one and indivisible.
The Principle of Ecology - Organic agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, emulate them and help sustain them.
The Principle of Fairness - Organic agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities.
The Principle of Care - Organic agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment.
It is time to put a halt to the dilution of organic standards satisfying powerful lobby groups that do not subscribe to the four principles of true organic farming (listed above), and for government at federal, provincial, and municipal levels, as well as the market-place for organic goods to throw weight behind regulating and enforcing organic standards with integrity and teeth in order to protect organic farmers and consumers. Otherwise, organic farming will splinter into many special interest groups and bitter disputes. Indeed, why should farms spend the high fees to certify as organic year upon year under the current lax regulatory framework? (The irony is, of course, that farms have to pay to be verified as organic, whereas conventional commodity farms are highly subsidized by government). I am on the side of small-scale regenerative organic farming as espoused by the esteemed Rodale Institute, relying on soil that has evolved and matured naturally over thousands of years, even millennia to produce nutritious, delicious food.
Peter Finch
Rolling Hills Organics
