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| What is Organic? Does Organic Cost More? The Difference Between Natural and Organic What's Wrong with Non-Organic Food? The Health Factor How to Identify Certified Organic Products? Where to Buy/Eat Organic Food Products? The Disadvantages |
What is Organic? Organic is a term that is used to describe a philosophy of working within the laws and systems existing in nature to achieve a healthy environment that is sustainable long-term. Healthy soil is the foundation of this philosophy. Organic Farming is a system that is based on building soil health through the use of compost, manure, cover crops and crop rotations and other natural methods. Organic principles are based on the belief that if the natural microbial life in the soil is given an opportunity to be prolific, the plants grown in that soil will also be healthy and resistant to pest and disease, and provide high quality nutrition to those that eat those plants. The term Organic technically means any chemical compound containing carbon. Sometime in the 1940's J. I. Rodale, founder of the magazine Organic Gardening, began using the term organic to describe flowers and foods grown with the earth's natural resources by composting materials and adding naturally occurring minerals to the soil instead of commercial fertilizers made up of synthetic compounds. Today the term, organically grown, has come to be known as food including crops and fibers such as cotton grown without any synthetic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or growth regulators. Organic farming practices also help to maintain the natural ecosystem and thus is known as "sustainable agriculture". |
