Why Organic Farming and NOT Permaculture, Agroecology, Natural, Regenerative or Biodynamic Farming ??
Guy The Organic
Founder, Think Organic Kenya| Host at Organic Adventures| I empower humanity to live healthy lives, Organically|
From time to time, I do get myself involved in conversations that go like this “But why does it has to be organic farming? We also have all these other systems that work with nature. In fact, the reason why we are seeing other systems come up like the regenerative movement is that organic farming is NOT doing enough and it's limiting farmers!”. In this month's Newsletter, I thought I should share with you why I am so bullish about organic farming, and not the other systems.
organic farmers can be agroecology farmers, organic farmers can be permaculture farmers, organic farmers can be biodynamic farmers, organic farmers can be natural farmers and organic farmers can be regenerative farmers. But the same thing can’t be said when this is done in reverse.
Let's get the house in order before we dive into this conversation. I will talk about Biodynamic farming’s special relationship with organic farming towards the end because I think when you talk about biodynamic , you are essentially talking about organic farming plus astrology. I will also mention about regenerative organic towards the end which I personally consider organic farming with makeup. This writing will majorly be a comparison of organic farming with Agroecology, Permaculture, Natural, Regenerative farming, and any other system that claims to work with nature.
To begin with, I have never met an honest person who knows what organic farming is (besides those who got their definition from google as a farming system that doesn't use fake fertilizers & pesticides) and knows organic principles look me in the eye and show me practices that Agroecology, Permaculture, Natural, Regenerative farmers can do that organic farmer can’t do. Why? because there aren't any. And if there were, which ones would they be? Is it planting cover crops, crop rotation, agroforestry, No-till Practices, Composting, Crop Diversity, Animal Integration, Managed Grazing, or Silvopasture?
Here is the breaking news! organic farmers can incorporate all of these practices into their systems. In fact, it's a requirement that organic farmers incorporate these practices before they become certified. Thus organic farmers must have and show a plan of agricultural practices that they intend to implement on their farms such as crop rotation, composting, crop diversification, etc. Unfortunately what the paid propagandist do is they take one bad example of an organic farmer (News flash: you can literally walk into any movement and find one) and then blast this one example in the news as a representation of what organic farming is. Over the years, it’s clear to see that lot of people have taken this bait.
While we are still at it, I can actually turn the same question around and ask, what are some of the practices that Agroecology, Permaculture, Natural, and Regenerative farmers can do that organic farmer can’t do? Well, when you put it this way, It becomes very easy for me to point out a few things that other farmers can use while organic farmers can’t. For example, other farmers can use fake fertilizers, whereas organic farmers can’t. They can use the toxic chemicals, organic farmers can’t. They can use GMOs, organic farmers can’t. They can use growth hormones in animals, organic farmers can’t. They can use all these so-called technologies and innovations which we now know are full of baloney, while in organic it's clear you can’t use them.
The ability of organic to reliably offer its utility to the marketplace is what really separates it from the other farming systems. If we roll back the years when everyone used their own labor to satisfy all their wants and needs, then these systems could work. In fact, we wouldn’t need all these systems at all.
This is NOT an attack on what all those systems stand for, but simply pointing out their shortcomings and what separates them from organic. Yes, they can claim not to be using all those substances on their farms, but there is simply no way of knowing it, only if you were growing for your own consumption. Organic is the only farming system that can guarantee someone else that the product they are purchasing is what they claim it is, a distinction that becomes very important in our world especially if you want to exchange your products and services in the marketplace.
This ability of organic to reliably offer its utility to the marketplace is what really separates it from the other farming systems. If we roll back the years when everyone used their own labor to satisfy all their wants and needs, then these systems could work. In fact, we wouldn’t need all these systems at all. Unfortunately, we are not there anymore. We are in a highly specialized world that heavily relies on the exchange of labor, which means consumers are always looking for ways to carefully use their precious labor which includes discriminating between real and fake food. Organic offers them an option to do just that.
The beauty of this trait is that it also works very well for farmers. It allows organic farmers to be fairly compensated by the marketplace for their dedication to taking care of nature, something we would otherwise be forced to rely on governments to do, which is not a wise move given the track record of subsidies where governments' policies are now set exclusively by big AG and by the fact that governments can’t always print more money and they can never tax their citizens enough to do so. This is something that the other farming systems have not been able to figure out so far. Newsflash, taking of nature is NOT free. Taking care of nature requires knowledge, time, and money.
Once you’ve cleaned that one out, the talk moves to organic being restrictive to what you can use and can’t use. A propaganda propagated by big AG, with press releases which go like this, "organic denies farmers innovations to improve their productivity" while what they are really saying is why are organic farmers limiting our market? Contrary to organic being about restrictions, It is in fact all about freedom. It gives farmers the freedom to work with nature, the freedom to learn from nature, the freedom from big AG capture, and perhaps more importantly the freedom from harm, destruction, and death.
So how about biodynamic farming? Well, from my perspective, biodynamic and organic farmers are essentially one, they only diverge being on the application of astrology to farming. In fact, one cannot become a biodynamic farmer without first becoming an organic farmer, perhaps an indication that biodynamic farmers do consider organic farming as being the foundation of biodynamic farming. The application of astrology makes it challenging for the average person to follow what's going on.
Contrary to organic being restrictive, It is in fact the opposite. It's all about freedom. The freedom to work with nature, The freedom to learn from nature, The freedom from big AG Capture, and perhaps more importantly the freedom from harm, destruction, and death.
Having read the work of Rudolf Steiner, widely regarded as the founder of the biodynamic movement, the average person can’t understand it, unless astrology and spirituality are an important theme of their life, and this is where most farmers and consumers are left out. This makes organic farming easily scalable across continents, countries, climates, and cultures across the world regardless of their beliefs. Lastly, if it's regenerative then there is no question that it has to be regenerative organic which is essentially organic with makeup.
I guess what I am saying is this, organic farmers can be agroecology farmers, organic farmers can be permaculture farmers, organic farmers can be biodynamic farmers, organic farmers can be natural farmers and organic farmers can be regenerative farmers. But the same thing can’t be said when this is done in reverse. Above all, organic farmers are not conventional but conventional farmers can become organic farmers, and we need more of this moving forward.
领英推荐
Organic farming isn’t limited by a set of rules and standards, but by nature. Its unwavering dedication to nature makes it the most adaptable, scalable, and impactful farming system in the world.
An important perspective perhaps to highlight from this writing is that organic farming isn’t limited by a set of rules and standards, but by nature. Its unwavering dedication to nature makes it the most adaptable, scalable, and impactful farming system in the world.
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XOXO, The Organic Guy.
*Quick Hits*
Podcasts Episodes You Might Have Missed!
My Organic Product Of The Week Series!
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Organic & Science
Organic and Science is a series of posts I release every Monday to highlight?peer-reviewed science?that supports organic some of which most scholars probably don't want you to see. Always be on the lookout for that. And if you are NOT following me on social media, Do so?here!
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Till the NEXT one, Be Organic.
Regenerative Agriculture // Hollistic Grazing & Health Management // Political Agroecology /Thanatology/ Dryland Food Forests /Farming & Planting Watèr. . F -PhD Candidate - Focuses on Dryland Regenerative Food Systems
9 个月Organic farming is governed by laws and regulations. These are country specific. Für example, conventional farming in Austria and some other European countries is already regulated so strictly, that it would almost be counted as organic farming in parts of the USA. Organic farming is a minimal standard. Sustainable farming goes beyond that, as it tries to keep the system running and not deteriorate even more. Regenerative farming is the next step, as it tries to rebuild things. Permaculture and agroecology come from two different angles, but both aim at regenerative farming (agroecology is a combination of agriculture and ecology, permaculture is a design system guided by ethical principles). Permaculture even goes beyond agriculture (it started as "permanent agriculture", but became "permanent culture" later), and includes other areas of life like sociall systems, finance and politics. For me, permaculture is the broadest approach. It also is very adaptable. Every permaculture system looks different, because we try to be in communication with the environment we live in. It's also very adaptable to worldviews and religions. You can be atheist, agnostic, Christian, Muslim, or whatever and practice permaculture. ( borrowed)
Founder and Lead Consultant at Starfish Organic
2 年Great article, well-argued and best of all, with humour! I have been on this same mission for months now. It is quite distressing to see organic agriculture being criticised from within, so to speak - people who should be (and in most cases, still are) our like-minded allies, somehow forgetting their roots, which are organic! So many of the concepts and approaches you describe here are often defined in how they "are better" or "go further" than organic, instead of turning it on its head, as you did here! We are being dragged into a debate (family feud?) that can only benefit our common adversary: the multinational food corporations. Nestlé and others are jumping on the regenerative bandwagon, not because they have had a change of heart, but because it is a term that THEY can define in any way it suits them - they can rebrand and greenwash to their heart's content. At the same time, I am concerned that development agencies and NGOs are jumping on the agroecology bandwagon, without really embracing the true underlying principles. I am definitely sharing this article - let's keep flying the organic flag!!
Agricultural innovator- No Kill Cropping, Stress Free Stockmanship, Self Herding
2 年A difficulty for current organic standards is that the inclusion of tillage is an Achilles heel for the claims toward long term sustainability or increased biodiversity. I agree that there is a lot of “Regen Wash” around now with almost any practice being labelled with the term. Early stage pioneers such as myself have a deeply different view and resent the attachment of much of the recent virtue signalling and downright false system narratives. An honestly based regenerative system increases both the diversity and mass of the organisms present in the system without need for large scale external inputs by retaining the majority of landscape function within that area. I am strongly supportive of most of the organic principles but wide scale tillage and soil disturbance in order to grow foods is detrimental to long term ecological processes. It is very good to recognise both the strengths and weaknesses of all systemic approaches so that we can progress and not be restricted in our applying methods that provide an ever enlarging biodiversity base for our continued benefit.
Organic and Regenerative Agriculture advocate
2 年Well expressed thanks for this
freelance consultant and writer on cotton and sustainability
2 年I've written myself about how regen is often just a fashionable buzzword and for some an opportunity to milk more certification fees. All the techniques are found in agro-ecology, which indeed organic uses too. The most important is to support farmers and adopt the solutions that will address local reality and problems