Organic agriculture is subject to some tensions. Some are for it and others are against it. We tell you more!
Would we ever have thought to talk about organic farming in these terms? Well, no!
It’s true, organic farming should be the norm.
Products with inputs, chemical pesticides of all kinds should be stamped as soon as they contain harmful substances?
The reality is quite different, because it is managed by industrialists and large distributors who even sponsor press articles on the decline of organic farming.
To each his own perception of agriculture and organic products, so we will try to give you some lines of thought.
A little history
Everything was decided at the end of the First World War. Indeed, the agricultural production lacks manpower in the rural population. It was necessary to find a way to produce intensively with the help of subsidies. Mechanics and chemistry became the two mainstays of this new agriculture. Everything that was tested during the wars found its interest in agriculture. At the same time, livestock breeding benefited from the remedies tested on the war wounded. Antibiotics were introduced into the stables. More animals for more meat, with the promise of a steak on one’s plate not only on feast days.
To feed these animals, a great plan of optimization of cereal production is launched. Goodbye fallow land and other precautions. Yes, profitability and productivity are the new language of agriculture. For that, larger surfaces, regrouping and dry loss of biodiversity! The farmer’s job rhymes with polluter. Pesticides, oil, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides are all part of his toolbox. Pollution of water tables, rivers, oceans and the planet changes the landscape.
We will talk later about an additional layer introduced with the development of the supermarket industry which has a deleterious role on the agricultural model.
The story goes that there are also more sensible people who refuse this new world.
And, finally, this is how organic agriculture was born.
About Organic Agriculture
Obviously, everything starts with the consumer, because it is the consumer who, through his or her purchasing actions, supports or does not support a system.
And this is not reserved for the urban bobos!
Health, nutritional values, local, anti-waste, preservation of the environment, origin, without chemistry and also employment are the cloud of words that accompany a way of consuming.
And that’s how in the 90’s, labels like the Organic Agriculture were born. To obtain this label, it is necessary to have the approval of a certified organization. It is obviously necessary to answer a schedule of conditions.
Unfortunately, and even if the progression of farmers towards organic farming is increasing significantly, the labeled farms represent only 10% of the farms.
It’s crazy to think that you have to obtain an organic label to justify more virtuous practices!
The advantages of Organic Agriculture
- The health of humans and animals preserved
- The preservation of the planet
- The development of biodiversity
- The respect of animal welfare
- A more authentic taste of organic fruits and vegetables
- A saving in water
- The development of jobs (three times more than in conventional farming!)
- A decrease in transport costs
Globally and logically, there are not only benefits in an Organic Agriculture production. However, this was without counting on the strength of industrial and distributor lobbies.
The common agricultural policy of European countries has its share of approximations.
This leads to distort or put porosity in the organic label.
A blooming of labels of all kinds in order to lose the consumer who in parallel asks for more transparency.
To the point that organic and intensive rhyme! Hard to swallow, and yet it is indeed the case.
The disadvantages of Organic Agriculture
- A limitation of the yields which makes it still a little expensive if you buy it in supermarkets, even if it is imported from countries where the label is somewhat misused.
- A more important workload for the producer. We are talking about one person per hectare in organic market gardening, whereas in conventional farming, it is one person for three hectares. If we take out the motorized mechanization, it is even more.
- A cost for producers who are reluctant to comply with the methodology of certification. The cost of justifying good practices when this is the way it has always been done for several generations… isn’t that the last straw? Financial cost of certification. Let’s salute, by the way, the French state which prefers to subsidize large farms that pollute more and depend on circles that are not very virtuous.
- In case of diseases, synthetic products are more radical in eliminating the pathogenic genes. Organic agriculture requires a certain know-how in natural treatment methods. Crops are not more sensitive to diseases but the appearance of pathologies has important consequences.
In conclusion
If Organic Agriculture has been on the rise for several years, this is due to the joint will of producers who are setting up, craftsmen who are transforming and a public that is more and more aware of the interests of taking care of the whole ecosystem.
However, all kinds of lobbies are trying to make it seem that the model is not viable. The multiplication of labels and the promotion of “local” to drown the fish are part of the game.
Source : biotoutcourt.com