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What Is Organic Farming?
| By Pinoy Farmer | September 23, 2009 | 
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Organic Farming is a technique used in farming without the use of any chemicals or synthetics. Aim of organic farming is to produce crops which have the highest nutritional values with least impact on nature. Crop rotation, green manure, use of natural fertilizers and biological pest control form the crux of organic farming. It is a proactive ecology management strategy. This strategy enhances the fertility of the soil, prevents soil erosion and at the same time protects the humans and animal kingdom from the side-effects of chemicals and synthetics. Many of the farm products, like, vegetables, fruit, herbs, meat, milk, eggs, etc. are produced organically by some farmers.
Is organic food more nutritious than conventional food?
The definitive study has not been done, mainly because of the multitude of variables involved in making a fair comparison between organically grown and conventionally grown food. These include crop variety, time after harvest, post-harvest handling, and even soil type and climate, which can have significant effects on nutritional quality. However, organic food is far less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional food.
Is organic food safe?
Yes. Organic food is as safe to consume as any other kind of food. Just as with any kind of produce, consumers should wash before consuming to ensure maximum cleanliness. As cited above, organic produce contains significantly lower levels of pesticide residues than conventional produce. It is a common misconception that organic food could be at greater risk of E. coli contamination because of raw manure application although conventional farmers commonly apply tons of raw manure as well with no regulation whatsoever.
Why does organic cost more?
The cost of organic food is higher than that of conventional food because the organic price tag more closely reflects the true cost of growing the food: substituting labor and intensive management for chemicals, the health and environmental costs of which are borne by society. These costs include cleanup of polluted water and remediation of pesticide contamination. Prices for organic foods include costs of growing, harvesting, transportation and storage. In the case of processed foods, processing and packaging costs are also included.
Organically produced foods must meet stricter regulations governing all these steps than conventional foods. The intensive management and labor used in organic production are frequently (though not always) more expensive than the chemicals routinely used on conventional farms. There is mounting evidence that if all the indirect costs of conventional food production were factored into the price of food, organic foods would cost the same, or, more likely, be cheaper than conventional food. Cost, however, is very dependent upon market venue and consumer product choice. It is possible to consume a moderately priced diet of organic foods by purchasing directly from farmers at venues such as farmers markets, and by choosing unprocessed organically grown foods at the grocery store.
Are organic yields lower?
Based on 154 growing seasons’ worth of data on various crops, organic crops yielded 95% of crops grown under conventional, high-input conditions. Growers who go through the 3-year transition period from conventional to organic management usually experience an initial decrease in yields, until soil microbes are re-established and nutrient cycling is in place, at which point yields return to previous levels.
Advantages of Organic Farming
The most important of the advantages of organic food is that it maintains the life of the soil, not only for the current generation, but also for the future generations. Water pollution is reduced with organic farming. Most of the times after it rains, the water from the fields, which contains chemicals, gets drained into the rivers. This pollutes the water bodies. In organic farming, since no chemicals or synthetics are used, water pollution reduces as well.
Organic farming helps in building richer soil. Rich soil is obtained by intelligently rotating crops. The rich soil helps in plant growth. The rate of soil erosion is reduced drastically. A French study has revealed that the nutritional quality and micro-nutrients are present in higher quantities in organically produced crops. The micro-nutrients promote good health.
Organically grown food tastes better too. The overall cost of cultivating the crops reduces as the farmers use green manure or worm farming to replenish the lost nutrients of the soil. The other option that the farmers use, is to grow legumes in rotation with the other crops.
The life of organically grown plants is longer than the plants cultivated by traditional methods. Organically grown crop is more drought tolerant. The chemical fertilizers cause the plant to ripen fast. When the crop does not get water it withers and dies, which is not the case with organic crops.
Disadvantages of Organic Farming
Along with the pros of organic farming, there are certain cons of organic farming too. The first disadvantage of organic farming is low productivity. With the highly developed chemicals and machinery, the farmer is able to multiply his harvest manifold times. The organic farmers use the cultivation method as opposed to drilling method used by the traditional farmers. The cultivated soil is prone to wind and water erosion. The traditional farmers opine that direct drilling does not cause any disharmony in the soil structure.
The next argument, which goes against organic farming, is that the organically produced food is expensive. The cost is very often 50-100 percent more than the traditional food. The other valid argument is that organic food is not always available. There is a reason behind that.
The organic farmers grow crops in accordance to the season. Neither do they artificially grow any crop nor do they extend the life of the plant or use chemicals, synthetics or pesticides. Therefore, oranges will be found only in winters and mangoes only in summer. Looking at it from the health benefits point of view, there is no doubt that you will benefit if you eat a particular food item, when it is actually in season.
After weighing the pros and cons of organic farming, it is noticed, that the pros of organic farming outweigh the cons of organic farming. It is therefore best to consume organically grown food, although a bit expensive.
In the Philippines, the term “organic farming” is very loosely used. What is really the true meaning of the term?
It evolves on three issues. One is the non-usage of chemical inputs in terms of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, etc. Second, it has to be non-GMO—meaning, no use of genetically modified organisms. The third one, which is the most important, is the issue of sustainability. This means that any farming system that is based on non-renewable resource like petroleum, cannot be sustainable. In other words, our farming system should not create pollution or poison. Everything should be recycled.
But some people say it’s so hard to prove that you are really doing 100% organic farming?
This is where the certification comes in. Like I can be 100% organic by practice but if my farm is in Davao, for example, and my neighbor happens to engage in the aerial spray of banana trees, I cannot be certified as organic because I’m contaminated.
Why has this certification issue become complicated?
Basically the problem lies in lobbying. There is a heavy lobbying for chemicals because there is big business in chemicals rather than going organic. Like if I teach you how to make your own fertilizer, I have no more business for you. In the same way if I teach you how to make botanical pesticide, I have no business for you. We are more pro-poor, pro-farmer. This is not just an issue of clean environment, it has also become a political issue. We teach the farmers how to breed hybrid inbred seeds so that they don’t need to buy anymore from the multinational seed companies. We have to understand that whoever controls the seeds controls everything. Those who control the seeds, they also control the pesticides, among many other things.
How organized is the organic farming industry?
It has a lot of fragments but there are also a surge of growing interest in organic farming. Like now, there is already an organization called Go-Organic Philippines. During the late ’90s, there were very few participants. Now there are many people going into this. Remember, we now have Executive Order 481, which aims to promote the organic farming industry in the country. I think they have a proposal of putting in excess of Php6oo million until 2010. So a lot of people really got interested.
Historically speaking, for the industry to grow, there has to be government help in the form of subsidy. If the government subsidizes the chemical industry they should also subsidize the organic industry. Secondly, the industry should be able to penetrate the mainstream supermarkets. Now, organic products are in supermarkets but it’s very loose. Most of them, they are not even certified.
Do we have any figures to show how many people are already engaged in organic farming?
We don’t have a benchmark figure yet, but let me put it this way. When we first proposed to the government, we were asking for 2% to 5% of total arable area to be devoted to organic farming. In terms of arable area, we are looking for about 5,000 to 7,000 hectares. There are many people who are going into this—like organic rice farming, but it’s only sold in the market as a regular rice.
One of my targets is to create a book or a booklet. It’s like a consumer guide on organic and natural foods. Like for example, coconuts are organic by neglect. Nobody uses fertilizers and sprays on the coconut tree, the same is true with saging na saba and talbos ng kamote. So there are really identifiable produce that are really grown naturally.
Is organic farming difficult to do?
It’s not that difficult than it was 10-15 years ago. Before I had poor yield. But now, after learning the technologies from the Japanese and the Koreans, and when I studied in the States, I found out it wasn’t that difficult. I said to myself, they were doing 10,000 acres of organic carrots in the US, why cannot we do it here? I am promoting three basic technologies. I developed a technique called 10-day composting without turning the pile. Second, I’ve learned a technique in the US — you only use two kilos of compost and it can fertilize one hectare of land.
Third, I’ve learned from the Japanese and the Koreans how to culture beneficial microorganisms. So I culture my own. We don’t have to buy microbes. We also learned how to do valuable extraction. Like if I need liquid nitrogen, instead of buying urea or ammonium sulfate, we just ferment wastes like fish scraps. We also extract malunggay. In the same way, if we want to make pesticides, we use the neem tree, kakawate and many other things. So these technologies are now available.
How would you describe the Philippine organic market?
There is always a market. In my experience, the defined market is composed of the health conscious people—these people have heard the sad stories of people who got poisoned by chemicals and pesticide. Then perhaps 30% of our market is composed of cancer patients. Because if you’re sick, you don’t want to ingest more poison. The third are the expats and the balikbayans — these are the people who are more aware of the benefits of consuming organic products. But I must agree that those who can afford to buy these still belong to the AB market.
How much are these products sold?
Internationally, organic produce are 20%-30% more expensive than the traditional produce. Here, it all depends. It can be 1,000% more or less. Let me give you an example. You can buy a conventional pechay in the market for P20/kilo. Some organic markets will see an organic pechay for P40/kilo, some would even sell for as much as P120/kilo. There are no standards or set rules. It’s a law of supply and demand. If it’s an unusual product, I can price that heavily. Lettuce, for example. The wholesale price of an organic lettuce is P8o-P1oo/kilo, which means that the retail price should be double. So it’s sold at a range of P120-P240/kilo.
How do you see the organic farming industry five to ten years from now?
I’ll still say the same thing that I said several years ago: whether you like it or not, the norm of the future is to go organic because we have no choice. If we do not take care of the environment, we are at the losing end. We kill the soil, we kill the environment and we eventually kill ourselves. There is no other way. If we want to survive as human species, we have to adapt a sustainable approach to food production and one of them is organic farming.
Five years, from now, it’s a matter of mainstreaming. In the US now, organic produce are in the mainstream market. You go to a supermarket you will find some organic products. When I left the States, there is no such thing—only specialty shops and stores. But right now, Walmart has announced that they will go organic. Here, it is through government subsidy and mainstreaming in the supermarkets that will spell the progress of the organic farming industry.
And now, because of the financial crisis, this is my belief. You see, we have organized ourselves— this is an adaptation of what they did in the US which is called the 4H club. It was developed in the US during the Great Depression. The main philosophy of this is really for people in the city to try to go to the countryside and produce their own food.
Who needs to drink softdrinks and all the non-essentials in time of deep crisis? We have to go back to the basics. So going back to the countryside is really a way to curb our financial crisis. And going organic is one of the ways not only to help protect our environment and maintain good health. It’s also a way to sustain food production and empower our farmers!
Sources: buzzle.com, attra.org, ofrf.org
Topics: Farming Methods, News & Updates | 1 Comment »
December 12th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Sir,
Very encouraging and informative. I hope more will read this article.
Yes sir, everyone wants to be healthy, to enjoy eating foods free of chemicals. For now, I am looking forward to that day when i have a copy of the book or booklet that you said you are going to create. I may not be able to convince my fellow farmers to go organic but somehow, anybody who understands the significance of this move will surely adapt it. And that book, i’m sure, will be of great help. Mabuhay po kayo, sir. Sana nga po magawa nyo na.
As of now we are gradually decreasing the use of inorganic fertilizers and chemicals in our small farm, about 20% level now and, hopefully, the transition period will start the next cropping season. We want to go total organic, crops, vegetables and poultry. In case there is a seminar about organic farming, please, kindly inform me.
Thank you and more power.
Franz s. R