Organic farming
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The history of the organics movement in general, and organic farming in particular, began with a group of agricultural scientists and farmers, and later expanded to become a grassroots consumer cause. Initially, organic farmers were reacting to the industrialization of agriculture, which consumers were largely unaware of. It was not until the contrasts between organics and industrial farming became overwhelming that organics began capture the attention of consumers.
The first half of the 20th century saw the introduction of the internal combustion engine, which led to tractors and other mechanized farm equipment. Research in plant breeding led to the production of hybrid seeds. Nitrogen fertilizer – first synthesized in the mid-1800s – became commonly available. There were over 3,000,000 tractors by 1950. As a result, fields grew bigger and fram crops became more specialized to make more efficient use of machinery. In England in the 1920s, a few individuals in agriculture began to speak out against these farming trends.
After World War II, large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides became common practice. In particular, two chemicals that had been produced for use in warfare were put to use in farming. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. Soon, new pesticides appeared: DDT, which had been used to control disease-carrying insects around troops, became a general insecticide, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.
In 1944, an international campaign called the Green Revolution was launched in Mexico with private funding from the US. It encouraged the development of hybrid plants, chemical controls, large-scale irrigation, and heavy mechanization in farms around the world. During the 1950s, sustainable agriculture was a topic of scientific interest, but research concentrated on developing new chemical approaches. In the US, J.I. Rodale began to popularize the term and methods of organic farming, particularly to consumers through promotion of organic gardening.
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) began in France in 1972 for the purpose of sharing information on organic farming all over the world. IFOAM also hoped to counter the impact of “chemically-based” agriculture on the environment and peasant societies. A generous contribution of “seed” money from the Rodale Press helped to make these early developments possible. The Institute was dedicated to comparative trials of different methods of organic cultivation and to show the effects of each on food quality. The oldest of these, inspired by the insights of Rudolf Steiner, was the biodynamic movement, which was mostly influential in German speaking countries. Learn more about IFOAM and organic farming here.
To learn more about biodynamic farming, go to biodynamics.com.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) created the National Organic Program to develop and implement national organic standards in this country. The USDA Agricultural Network Info Center provides general information concerning organic agriculture in the U.S. For more detailed information concerning organic acreage and livestock in the US, as well as informative articles, visit the USDA Economic Research Service. The United States has witnessed massive growth of certified organic farms in cent years. A total of 56 agencies exist in the U.S. which are accredited by the USDA to certify farms. For the first time in the US, all 50 states have certified organic farmland.
To locate a farmer’s market near you, go to the Agricultual Marketing Service’s Farmer Direct Marketing website.
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