My take on organic gardening...

A question I'm asked often, is: "where do you stand on organic gardens?".

Generally, I answer this with a smile and a dismissive: "on the soil of course!".

The reason for this awkwardness is not to be rude or to belittle the questioner in any way, it's simply to cover up my own embarrassment because, to be honest, I haven't yet made up my mind.



Yet that statement does sum up most of the thoughts and opinions swirling around in my head.  Let me explain...

There are so many definitions and explanations for what constitutes "organic agriculture", and with it gardening, that it's hard to understand exactly where you even need to start thinking about it.

Although a bit wordy, I've come to see the following definition (which took a number of years and a consultative process!), to be the one below most closely fits my thinking.

International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements:

"Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved."

 

IFOAM Definition of Organic Agriculture

I like this definition because it includes the elements of agriculture that I think we, as a society, have forgotten about since the industrial revolution gave us the machinery and chemicals that so many in agriculture (and home gardening) rely upon today.


That would be the need to sustain, in this order, (1) the health of the soils, (2) the ecosystem and (3) the people who rely upon it.

In general, agriculture is loaded towards producing as much as possible, for as little input as possible, in order to feed as many as possible.  We effectively drain every last nutrient from the soil, clearing, over-working, over-cropping, over-irrigating, removing even the stubble from our crops to turn some more profit, etc etc and then we chuck synthetic nutrients on it as a quick fix before we start the cycle again.

Rather than this system of constantly taking from the soil to feed those at the top of the food chain, I think it's about time that we reversed that a bit.


If we feed the soil, rather than the plants, then we will be working to preserve our greatest natural resource and, possibly, we might manage to feed more in the process.