What is Organic farming?

The word “organic” refers to the way farmers grow and process agricultural products.

Organic farming practices are designed to meet the following goals:

• Enhance soil and water quality
• Reduce pollution
• Provide safe, healthy livestock habitats
• Enable natural livestock behavior
• Promote a self-sustaining cycle of resources on a farm

Organic crop farming materials or practices may include:

• Plant waste left on fields (green manure), livestock manure or compost to improve soil quality
• Plant rotation to preserve soil quality and to interrupt cycles of pests or disease
• Cover crops that prevent erosion when parcels of land are not in use and to plow into soil for improving soil quality
• Mulch to control weeds
• Predatory insects or insect traps to control pests
• Certain natural pesticides and a few synthetic pesticides approved for organic farming, used rarely and only as a last resort in coordination with a USDA organic certifying agent

Materials or practices not permitted in organic farming include:

• Synthetic fertilizers to add nutrients to the soil
• Sewage sludge as fertilizer
• Most synthetic pesticides for pest control
• Irradiation to preserve food or to eliminate disease or pests
• Genetic engineering, used to improve disease or pest resistance or to improve crop yields
• Antibiotics or growth hormones for livestock