{"id":3673,"date":"2017-09-14T14:05:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3673"},"modified":"2017-09-14T14:05:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T13:05:10","slug":"organic-month-organic-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/2017\/09\/14\/organic-month-organic-farming\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic Month: What is organic farming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dig deeper into Organic Month with this extract from The Development of the Organic Network<\/em><\/a>. Taking a broad view of the organic movement, Philip Conford tries to answer the question: ‘What is organic farming?’.<\/p>\n

September is Organic Month. Keep an eye on the Floris blog<\/a> for more organic recipes and discussions.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018But wasn\u2019t all farming organic before chemical fertilizers and pesticides were invented?\u2019 This frequently asked question is based on the premise that organic methods of cultivation are merely negative, consisting in the avoidance of synthetic substances. The organic arable farmer Barry Wookey described such a negative definition as \u2018simplistic\u2019, though he evidently regarded it as a starting-point for the understanding of what organic farming is. Nevertheless, it is a misconception. The Romans had no chemical fertilizers, but the large-scale estates (latifundia) of their empire, which ignored the rule of return and exhausted the fertility of North African soils, were far from \u2018organic\u2019. Other cultures, particularly in the Far East, have provided examples of fertility maintenance which served to inspire the twentieth-century pioneers of the organic movement. This movement arose as a conscious and scientific reaction against the industrial-chemical approach to farming.\"\"<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that different terms have been used to denote methods of cultivation which seek to observe the rule of return. Invention of the phrase \u2018organic farming\u2019 has been attributed to Lord Northbourne, but Northbourne himself was adamant that this was not the case, writing to Ned Halley of the Rodale Press: \u2018I was certainly not the first to apply the word \u201corganic\u2019\u2019 to farming or gardening. I have never known the ideas and practices under any other name\u2019.<\/p>\n

Other terms which are used as possible synonyms for \u2018organic\u2019 include \u2018sustainable\u2019, \u2018alternative\u2019, \u2018traditional\u2019 and \u2018ecological\u2019. Nic Lampkin, in his textbook on organic farming, [rejected] the academic pedantry which might devote entire articles to defining the differences between all these terms, concentrating instead on what they have in common. (The one exception will be the biodynamic methods of Rudolf Steiner\u2019s followers, which are part of a distinct esoteric philosophical system.) The term \u2018organic\u2019 has been much the most widely used to describe the alternative approach to that imposed by agri-business.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em>For Lawrence Woodward of the Elm Farm Research Centre, writing early in the present century, the definition of organic offered by the United States Department of Agricuture (USDA) in the early 1980s remained the most accessible:<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilisers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. To the maximum extent feasible, organic systems rely on crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply plant nutrients, and to control insects, weeds, and other pests\u2026. The concept of the soil as a living system \u2026 that develops \u2026 the activities of beneficial organisms \u2026 is central to this definition.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While arguing that there exist significant differences between the main strands of the organic movement, Woodward nevertheless identified \u2018an essential core of agreement\u2019 at the heart of it:<\/p>\n

\u2014 the conception of the farm as a living organism, tending towards a closed system in respect of nutrient flows but responsive and adapted to its environment;<\/p>\n

\u2014 the understanding of soil fertility in terms of a \u2018living soil\u2019, which has the capacity to influence and transmit health through the food chain to plants, animals and humans;<\/p>\n

\u2014 the idea that these linkages constitute a whole system within which there is a dynamic yet to be understood;<\/p>\n

\u2014 a commitment to science, and an insistence that whilst the above ideas challenge orthodox scientific thinking, they should be explored, developed, and will eventually be explained through appropriate scientific analysis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

About the book<\/h4>\n

\"Organic<\/a>Discover more about the history of organic farming in The Development of the Organic Network: Linking People and Themes 1945-1995<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 In this wide-ranging study, Philip Conford describes the movement’s various organisations, journals and leading personalities, exploring what links them together.<\/p>\n

What do you think about organic farming? Let us know on Facebook<\/a> or Twitter<\/a>. Or, find out more about Organic Month here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dig deeper into Organic Month with this extract from The Development of the Organic Network. Taking a broad view of the organic movement, Philip Conford tries to answer the question: ‘What is organic farming?’. September is Organic Month. Keep an eye on the Floris blog for more organic recipes and discussions. \u2018But wasn\u2019t all farming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,381,406],"tags":[613,612,150,615,608,639,611,604,637,22,638,636],"class_list":["post-3673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biodynamics","category-food-and-drink","category-gardening","tag-book-extract","tag-extract","tag-floris-books","tag-food-production","tag-nutrition","tag-organic-farming","tag-organic-food","tag-organic-month","tag-philip-conford","tag-rudolf-steiner","tag-sustainable","tag-the-development-of-the-organic-network","odd"],"yoast_head":"\nOrganic Month: What is organic farming? - Floris Books Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To celebrate Organic Month, read an extract from The Development of the Organic Network, Philip Conford's comprehensive history of organic farming.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.florisbooks.co.uk\/blog\/2017\/09\/14\/organic-month-organic-farming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Organic Month: What is organic farming? 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