Organic farming making a resurgence

    Organic farming today is an alternative agricultural system which has been making its way back in recent years because of rapidly changing farming practices and an ever-increasing awareness of the need for better land stewardship.
    Before the 20th century, all food was grown organically. The history of organic agriculture can be traced back thousands of years.
    The history of conventional agriculture is less than 100 years old.
    Organic farming was the original and traditional way to farm, although it was not called organic. It was simply how people grew their food.
    After World War II, the U.S. had both the motivation and scientific knowledge to leave behind agricultural methods that relied solely on sun, water and animals.
    The country entered into the period of industrial farming powered by fossil fuels. In addition to that new direction of change was a mindset created by severe food shortages that were commonplace during the Great Depression and WWII. It became foremost in importance that the quantity and abundance of our food supply should increase to meet the demands of the country.
    Technologies developed during WWII led to a major escalation in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
    Ammonium nitrate used for munitions was abundant and inexpensive fertilizer and nerve gas were developed into pesticide.
    In the early 1960s, followers of the hippie culture took a stand against how the industrialization of agriculture was affecting water, air, land and all that nourished people. They believed that our farming practices were not on a sustainable path to create a healthy society. Hippies believed that we must create a food system that worked with nature instead of against it.
    This movement began to shed light on the need to reconsider the use of synthetic chemicals in farming practices.
    Agricultural experts came to realize that chemicals used to maintain conventional farming were having a negative effect on the environment and people’s health.
    Many conventional farmers are finding that it now takes five to 10 times as much synthetic fertilizer to get the same result in crop yield from 20 years ago because the soil has deteriorated.
    Organic farming produces more food at less cost to the health of people and the planet.

Local organic farming gaining interest
    Joel Grosbach, a Chase County farmer, has been classified as certified organic for one year.
    In 2017, Grosbach raised organic white corn and pinto beans on irrigated land, he said.
    “In 2018, I plan to grow organic popcorn,” he continued.
    Organic farming requires crop rotation to keep weeds and insects under control, Grosbach said.
    “Crop rotation is a good practice whether you farm organically or conventionally,” he stated.
    He explained the difference between conventional and organic farming being that organic farming does not use synthetics.
    “All fertilizer and pesticides must be naturally occurring or derived,” he said.
    “One example of a natural fungicide for organic crops is an extract of knotweed,” said Grosbach.
    Tim Varilek is an “Acre+” advisor with an emphasis on organic farming for the Frenchman Valley Coop Agronomy Department in Imperial.
    Varilek said even though there are some similarities between conventional and organic farming, he concurred that organically grown crops are restricted from the use of all commercial or synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
    “The yield potential and amount of time working the field can be similar, but organic farming involves a little more labor-intensive cultivation to keep weeds down. I never met a weed that iron can’t kill,” Varilek smiled.
    If all farmers were organic, it would not feed the world. There is still a need for both conventional and organic farming at the present time, said Varilek.
    Grosbach explained that organic farming focuses on the biological side of the soil and plants and takes a systems approach to production.
    “It’s always a good thing to keep chemicals and synthetic fertilizer off of our ground, conventional or organic,” he said.
     “Organic farming is all-encompassing. There’s a give and take. It takes hard work and more diesel fuel, but less chemicals go into the ground water, rivers and streams that could cause cancers,” Varilek commented.
    The resurgence of the organic age has found its niche in the last 10 plus years, and it has become more mainstream in the last three to five years, Varilek added. Organic farming is increasingly gaining interest.
    “There doesn’t seem to be the antagonism toward organic farming as in the past. It used to be considered a ‘hippie thing’ or have a kind of ‘tree-hugger’ attitude,” said Grosbach.

Getting into organic farming
    To be considered organic, the farm ground must be certified by an agency following National Organic Standards (NOP), said Grosbach.
    The USDA puts out natural organic program standards to be followed by the farmer. A certifying agency will then work with the farmer to be sure they are staying in compliance. In this way they can become certified organic, he added.
    “It is an intensively managed production system and must follow the entire organic plan from January to December with the paperwork to go with it,” said Grosbach.

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