Source:  www.ifoam.org

Organic Agriculture mitigates climate change because it:

Reduces greenhouse gases, especially nitrous oxide, as no chemical nitrogen fertilizers are used and nutrient losses are minimized.

Stores carbon in soil and plant biomass by building organic matter,encouraging agro-forestry and forbidding the clearance of primary ecosystems.

Minimizes energy consumption by 30-70% per unit of land by eliminating the energy required to manufacture synthetic fertilizers, and by using internal farm inputs, thus reducing fuel used for transportation.

Organic Agriculture helps farmers adapt to climate change because it:

Prevents nutrient and water loss through high organic matter content and soil covers, thus making soils more resilient to floods, droughts and land degradation processes.

Preserves seed and crop diversity, which increases crop resistance to pests and disease. Maintenance of diversity also helps farmers evolve new cropping systems to adapt to climatic changes.

Minimizes risk as a result of stable agro-ecosystems and yields, and lower production costs.

Conventional agriculture contributes to climate change because it:

Uses synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that require significant amounts of energy to manufacture.

Applies excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizer that is released as nitrous oxide.

Operates intensive livestock holdings that overproduce manure and methane.

Relies on external, soy-based animal feed that requires large amounts of fuel to travel thousands of kilometers to reach the farm.

Mines the earth of the nutrients needed to sustain production, thereby leading to the clearing of rainforest and “slash and burn” techniques that reduce carbon storage and release huge amounts of carbon dioxide from burning vegetation.

Although the basic definition of “organic” is “living”, the National Organic Standards Board defined “certified organic” at their meeting in April 1995 as follows:

“Organic” is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole.

Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water. Organic food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.”

Visit the Organic Trading and Information Center for more information on federal and state organic standards.

How is organic produce certified?
Farmers must grow produce for three years without the application of synthetic pesticides or chemicals. The farm, its equipment, and any processing facilities are inspected by an independent agency unaffiliated with the grower, the processor or the vendor, and are then issued a certificate from that agency certifying the farm’s produce as “organic.”

www.cnn.com

By Sara Franklin
For starters, many people buy organic food in major supermarkets because it is better for their bodies, not the earth. A great deal of research has shown that pesticide residues on foods are retained in the human body. Further research, like that of scientist Michael Pollan, has documented the potential harms of pesticides, especially for young children and women who are, or may become, pregnant.

And those who consume pesticides are not the only ones exposed. Conventional agriculture requires a great deal of farm labor, and the workers who handle pesticides receive the bulk of pesticide exposure, which can lead to a plethora of health problems ranging from respiratory illness to cancer.

To make matters worse, many of these workers cannot afford healthcare because of political red tape and immigration policies, and are therefore hit by the double whammy of ingesting poisons and not being able to access health care when those poisons cause ill health.

Even those who buy organic, as Brown said, because it is purportedly “greener” than conventional agriculture are on to something. Conventional agriculture in this country goes hand in hand with the heavy use of chemical fertilizers, monocropping (growing the same crop year after year on the same plot of land without rotation) and centralized food production.

We are losing farmland at an alarming rate in this country as we rapidly degrade the biodiversity of our ecosystems. In the Midwest, the “breadbasket” of America, some of the richest soil on the planet is being continually weakened by pesticides and drained of nutrients by monocropping, despite the fact that crop rotation has long been accepted as the best method for preserving the nutrient content of soil.

Centralized agriculture means that we are eating foods that are shipped an average of 1,300 miles from source to mouth according to Michael Pollan in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” a distance that uses an extraordinary amount of fossil fuels, further contributing to climate change.

In addition, big agribusinesses are contributing to the loss of family farming in this country and worldwide, destroying the way of life of thousands of families who have been responsibly cultivating their land, making a living and contributing to local economies for generations.

As far as price goes, organically produced food costs more than conventionally grown food because conventionally produced food actually costs more than we pay. Government subsidies, which are currently under extreme scrutiny by proponents of major reforms in the 2007 Farm Bill, have allowed agribusiness owners, who primarily grow wheat, corn and soy, to get rich, while those who grow “specialty crops” (i.e. the fruits and vegetables we need to eat to have optimal health) are being denied federal aid.

That is why products that are made primarily of the commodity crops of corn, wheat and soy, like candy bars and soda, are so much cheaper in the supermarket than fruits and vegetables - the government in effect pays farmers to overproduce, thus falsely deflating their prices.

All this is only in defense of the “organic” label, however, which is not the ideal of proponents of sustainable agriculture. As a former grower on a small organic farm owned by a non-profit organization in Waltham, Mass., I can say that locally grown, organic food not only tastes better and is much fresher than anything you’ll find in a Shaw’s or even a Whole Foods, but that those who have dedicated their lives to preserving our land by using it in a sustainable and responsible way work incredibly hard and for very little money.

When you pay a bit more to buy from them, you are supporting a local economy and cutting out middlemen, thus contributing directly to the salary of a hard-working farmer. Additionally, supporting small and family-owned farms helps preserve green spaces, curb overdevelopment and protect biodiversity and local ecosystems.

Source:
www.tuftsdaily.com