- Organic farming has legal underpinning.
- Not just about chemicals.
- Can produce lower yields, so may impact food security. Can we feed the world organically?
- However massive environmental benefits, so not clear cut.
I'm a big supporter of organic farming, having seen the benefits that organic farming systems can offer, first hand. Like any farming system, organic is not perfect, but given the vast environmental challenges that all food systems are facing, my view is that organic offers a workable solution to most of these. Not everyone would agree with this and the organic vs. non-organic debate still rages on both inside and outside of the farming community.
As you may have noticed by now, like all things to do with food and farming, this discussion is not entirely straightforward. I'm very wary of simply saying that organic farming is by default "better" for the environment than non-organic for various reasons, especially because by adopting this position you are therefore implicitly criticising all non-organic farmers. At this point in time, the food and farming sector needs now more than ever, to be united, so divisive comparisons between farming systems are not helpful.
I've come across some incredible non-organic famers, who are managing to produce nutritious food with minimal environmental impact. Likewise, I have also come across some not-so-good organic farmers. Organic certification certainly isn't necessarily a byword for impeccable environmental credentials. However, there are some big advantages to organic production.
At this point it might be worth discussing what "organic" actually means. You often hear organic farming used interchangeably for "chemical free", but this isn't correct. It may surprise you to learn that organic farmers can still use approved chemicals (some of which are arguably more harmful than non-organic products), although many farmers choose not to. Most artificial fertiliser is not permitted under organic regulations, along with most pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
I won't go into the organic standards in detail here, but it's worth noting that the standards go much further than just restricting the use of chemicals. There are also strict provisions made for animal welfare and for a range of other environmental practices, such as looking after soil health. Farmers are inspected annually to ensure they comply.
Importantly, organic farming is unique in that it is codified by law. This is then used to construct organic farming standards against which farmers are inspected. This is really important and sets it apart from any other term like "regenerative" or "sustainable" that has no fixed definition. This means that as a UK consumer you can go and review the organic standards and know exactly to the letter how your certified organic food has been produced. It's illegal to label any food as "organic" unless you have been certified as such.
For me, the point above is probably the most important reason I choose to support organic farms. Whilst sourcing directly from a farmer is a great way to make your own assessment of their farming practices, organic certification means that you can be confident you are still making a positive environmental choice, even if the food or ingredients have come from multiple farms.
So what's wrong with organic then? This all sounds great right? Well it is pretty good and generally, organic offers a ready-made and legally regulated model for sustainable farming. However, when you remove artificial fertiliser and other products from the system, crop yields take a hit. Given the rapidly growing global population, many people would argue that we need to maximise the food produced from farmland, to enable other land uses elsewhere.
Some organic yields can be half that of a non-organic farm (although this very much depends on the crop) and to build fertility, farmers will typically rest the land under a fertility building grass ley or cover crop for a year or more. This means that your field is only producing crops for a maximum of 3 in every 4 years.
Given concerns about the need to use farmland efficiently, this can be seen as a big challenge. It's worth nothing though, that for some crops there is minimal difference between organic and non-organic yields and may farmers will graze livestock on the fertility building ley, so will still be producing food in that year.
Models have been run that show we could still feed the world organically, especially with dietary change. Bear in mind too, the miniscule amount of R&D funding that goes into organic farming and the need to simply reduce food waste. Taking all this into account, I'm not sure if the concerns about the lack of production always stack up.
Lower yields aside, there are some very strong environmental arguments in favour of organic too. In a non-organic crop production system, the vast majority of emissions come from artificial nitrogen fertiliser. As this isn't used in organic farming, these emissions and the wider knock-on environmental effects are absent, meaning that the carbon footprint of organic crop production is often much lower Avoiding reliance on imported chemical fertiliser is also vital in ensuring a resilient food system.
Evidence also shows that on average, biodiversity can be over 40% higher on organic farms mainly due to the absence of most pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. The UK State of Nature Report released this week made stark for reading, so anything that helps safeguard biodiversity is vital.
Personally whilst I am not a zealot, I make the most of any opportunity to support organic farmers and I would encourage everyone to do the same. Unlike terms like "sustainable" or "eco", organic has real substance. When sourcing ingredients for Oliver's Muesli, wherever possible these will be organic.