When it comes to the cultivation of food crops, organic farming is the way to go.

A recent study suggests that organic farming — unlike its conventional and industrial-scale counterparts — has a slew of impressive benefits. These include the capacity to employ more people and generate a more sustainable means of livelihood for communities.

Organic farms hire more workers per acre and employ a greater proportion of full-time employees, mainly because of the more labor-intensive methods often employed in such systems.

In the study, which appeared in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, the team looked at data gathered from organic farms in California and Washington and compared these with conventional farms in the same regions. This allowed the team to examine whether organic farming is more labor-intensive than conventional farming, and whether it has the potential to become a part of a viable job-creation strategy. As it turns out, it does.

According to the researchers, they found that organic farms hire more workers per acre and thus, employ a greater proportion of full-time employees than their conventional counterparts. Not only that, but workers often worked 150 days or more on organic farms than on an average farm in eight out of the ten studied counties.

As noted by the researchers in their study, their findings match the results of earlier research which found that organic production is associated with greater opportunities for permanent employment.

The researchers noted, however, that although questions pertaining to labor practices, compensation, and quality-of-life are vitally important, they were not able to directly examine them in the context of the current study.

What is organic farming?

Organic farming, as defined by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, natural biological cycles and natural soil biological activity.

A system of agriculture that uses ecologically based pest controls and biological fertilizers, modern organic farming was first conceptualized and developed during the early part of the twentieth century as a response to the environmental harm caused by the use of chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers in conventional agriculture, such as soil depletion and erosion, low food quality, rural poverty and the decline — and even eradication — of certain heirloom crop varieties.

According to experts, while the principles behind organic farming and its benefits were already known to most academic circles at that time, it was the publication of naturalist and scientist Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” — a book which documented the extent of environmental damage caused by insecticides such as DDT — that really spurred an increase in the demand for the production of organic food throughout the 1960s.

This demand has since carried over to the present, with the organic food sector notching in total sales of $47.9 billion in 2019 in the U.S. alone.

As a whole, organic farming typically uses fewer pesticides compared to conventional farming. It also reduces soil erosion, as well as the leaching of nitrates into groundwater and surface water. In addition, because it uses fertilizers derived largely from animal and plant wastes and nitrogen-fixing cover crops, it also recycles organics and nutrients back into the soil, which ensures its fertility.

What are the types of organic farming?

According to experts, organic farming comes in two main forms: pure organic farming, which uses organic animal manures and natural predators and plant-derived pest control mechanisms in place of their synthetic counterparts; and integrated organic farming, which primarily aims to cultivate the land and raise crops in such a way that the soil remains “alive” and in good health, usually by using farming practices developed in ancient times.

Another form, sustainable farming, is considered to be less radical, as it allows the controlled and limited use of certain chemicals according to the tolerance threshold of crops. This method is usually adopted by those who are transitioning from conventional farming practices to more ecologically responsible ones.

Despite the differences between the different methods, however, they have one thing in common: they both raise crops sustainably in an ecologically friendly and pollution-free environment.

What are the benefits of organic farming?

No matter which method of organic farming one employs, the benefits, listed below, largely remain the same:

Organic farming reduces the amount of pesticides in the environment

According to the Organic Trade Association, if every farmer in the U.S. converted to organic farming methods, up to 500 million pounds of persistent and harmful pesticides could be prevented from entering the environment annually.

As per experts, this is important because the continued use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals can result in many negative environmental issues such as resistance in weeds, plant-eating-insects, fungi and bacteria.

Pesticides and chemicals sprayed on crops can also contaminate the soil, water supply, and air.

In addition, because of how they are formulated, synthetic pesticides often stick around for decades, which means that succeeding generations would have to deal with their effects as well.

Organic farming can help build healthy soil

Constantly treating the soil with harmful synthetic pesticides and chemicals often results in the soil becoming overly dependent on chemicals to the point where it cannot support life on its own, experts have said.

This is because synthetic chemicals drive out and even kill beneficial bacteria in the soil, most of which help in the process of nitrogen and nutrient fixing.

Because of this, the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) says natural cultivation practices that advocate the use of compost and tilling should be adopted, especially since they are far better at conditioning and preserving the soil compared to chemical soil management.

Organic farming can help prevent soil erosion

Organic farming not only helps build healthy soil, but it also helps prevent the occurrence of serious soil and land problems such as erosion.

This is because organic farming promotes a practice called cover cropping, which involves growing plants that are intended to be tilled back into the soil once the field is needed for growing cash crops.

Grasses such as buckwheat and rye, and legumes such as clover, are often used as cover crops.

According to experts, cover cropping helps prevent erosion by reducing the amount of water that drains off a field, as well as by sheltering and stabilizing soils that would otherwise be exposed to the damaging forces of the elements. This makes it the most important soil-protecting technique used in organic farming.

Aside from that, once the cover crops are mulched in, the organic matter that they leave behind helps feed organisms in the soil, making it healthier and more fertile for other plants.

Organic farming helps in water conservation

Because organic farms often use cover crops, they are able to minimize the amount of water that runs off from their fields. This is of particular importance since, according to non-profit and advocacy group American Rivers, one major water pollution threat to U.S waters is the runoff from non-organic farms, which often contains harmful substances such as pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

In addition, due to improved soil health, organic farms have since been found to help conserve water, as well as help refresh aquifers or underground water sources. This makes organic farming an important factor in the conservation of the planet’s precious water supplies.

Organic farming supports animal welfare and encourages biodiversity

One of the principles of organic farming is that the farmer must work with nature and not against it.

This means that a farmer must make sure that his farms or fields must be structured and operated in such a way that they preserve and promote biodiversity.

According to a study by researchers from Slovenia, farms that practiced organic production methods increased their species richness by about 30 percent. In addition, the researchers also found that organic fields had up to five times higher plant species richness compared to conventional fields.

Furthermore, predator and pollinator abundance were noted to be 20 times higher in organic fields, with butterfly abundance noted to be about 60 percent higher compared to conventional farms and fields. This means that the farmer would no longer need to use synthetic pest control, nor will he have to resort to renting pollinators for his crops — Mother Nature will do all the heavy lifting for him.

Additionally, animals who live on organic farms are exposed to a clean environment and food, both of which help keep them naturally healthy and resistant to illness. As an added perk for organic farmers, these animals’ wastes can be used to fertilize the fields as organic compost.

There’s more to organic farming than just making your own compost – it’s a way of life that’s sustainable, not just for you and your family, but also, to the environment as a whole.

Interested in getting started with organic farming? Read similar stories at HomeGardening.News.com.

Sources:

TandFOnline.com

NaturesPath.com

PermacultureNews.org

FoodBusinessNews.net

NIFA.USDA.gov

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Alimentarium.org

FAO.org

FrontiersIn.org

TheSpruce.com

OrganicConsumers.org

InTechOpen.com