What Organic Agriculture Is

Organic agriculture (biological and ecological agriculture) emerged as an alternative to industrial, high-input agriculture, a response to the negative consequences industrial agriculture has on human health, economic outcomes, and the environment. The scheme draws on efficient use of resources and protects the natural balance that poor practice has damaged. Synthetic chemical pesticides, fertilisers, and hormones are not permitted under the scheme.

Organic agriculture works through coordinated practice: soil quality management, appropriate alternatives for disease and pest control, use of plant residues, crop rotation, green manuring, use of organic waste, biological control, and animal manure. The scheme aims at high quality output. Its core aim is to sustain the production optimisation across the soil, plant, animal, and human life cycle. National and international organic agriculture standards require the control of every stage a product follows, from field to shelf. This gives consumers who want both healthy living and environmental protection a reliable reference. For producers, the scheme provides a way to evidence their production through certification and to reach the product prices they deserve.

Through the agricultural practices run to date, people have become aware of the damage done to the living and non-living environment around them, including the damage done to human living space. New agricultural approaches aligned with nature, making efficient use of resources, supporting sustainable development, and considering animal welfare, have started to spread worldwide. Some remain conceptual, while others are now part of everyday life.

Organic agriculture is defined in multiple ways, but organic, biological, and ecological agriculture all mean the same thing. Several definitions of organic agriculture follow.

Organic agriculture (or ecological or biological agriculture) is the agricultural scheme that prohibits synthetic fertilisers, agricultural pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and harmful food additives, and that controls every stage from production to consumption to produce healthy agricultural products while using natural resources well.

Organic agriculture (or ecological or biological agriculture) is a controlled, recorded, certified production form that protects ecological balance, uses inputs aligned with the organic method across all plant, animal, and aquatic production or sourced accordingly, collects products from forest and natural areas in line with organic principles, and that covers processing, packaging, storage, labelling, marketing, transport, control, certification, and audit, while applying modern agricultural production methods that do not harm the environment or human health.

Organic agriculture (or ecological or biological agriculture) is an agricultural production scheme that aims at social and economic sustainability and builds on soil quality, environmental protection, and food safety. In short, organic, biological, and ecological agriculture is a certified production form that avoids synthetic external inputs such as chemical fertilisers and pesticides, is anchored on sustainable quality, does not harm people or the environment, and controls and records every stage from production to consumption.