Organic farming allows maintaining a balance within the ecosystem while producing crops. It is a practice of managing the farming process by integrating site-specific practices and using ecological approaches, as defined by Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (n.d.). For instance, an organic farming practice includes recycling resources and integrating and conserving biodiversity. This paper will review the benefits and interesting facts about organic farming.
As opposed to traditional farming, the benefits of organic are that these farmers avoid using harmful chemicals and work with the environment they are in to produce crops, for example, by rotating crops. The former practice means that organic farmers cannot choose what crops to grow, unlike conventional farmers. However, this practice allows the soil to fertilize naturally. Cernansky (2018) states that with a traditional farm, one can use fertilizer and spray chemicals to help the plants grow, while organic practices forbid the use of these chemicals. The process of organic farming is more complicated when compared to traditional agriculture. According to Cernansky (2018), it requires more upfront investments and more labor, for instance, to “tackle the weeds” (para. 15). Next, Mishra et al. (2018) state that producers typically use biofertilizers in organic farming, such as compost. Besides, manual labor is used to plant, look after, and gather crops in most cases.
Interestingly, others viewed organic farming as a practice suitable only as a small operation in the past. Currently, one of the organic farming cooperatives, the Organic Valley, has over 500 members, and some major agriculture companies invest in organic farms (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, n.d.). In summary, what makes organic farming is the regard for the environment, where farmers plant crops that are suitable for a given biosphere and do not use harmful chemicals.
References
Cernansky, R. (2018). We don’t have enough organic farms. Why not? National Geographic. Web.
Mishra, P., Singh, P., Singh, S., & Verma, H. (2019). Sustainable agriculture and benefits of organic farming to special emphasis on PGPR. Role of Plant Growth Promoting Microorganisms in Sustainable Agriculture and Nanotechnology, 75-87. Web.
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. (n.d.). Transitioning to organic production. Web.