Tag: organic farming

Organic Farming Practices

The modern day organic farmer practices combine modern technology with traditional farming methods, this produces high yielding crops while at the same time doing no harm to the environment.  Maintaining the natural balance of the ecosystem during the farming process is one of the goals of an organic farmer.  There are no chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides or anything else that may be toxic to you or the crops.  Genetically modified seeds are also not a part of organic farming practices, organic farmers choose the seeds that are best suited to growing in that environment and climate.

Crop Diversity

One of the elements that organic farmers us to produce such high yielding crops is by employing ‘polyculture’ or crop diversity.  This is when there are different types of crops that are grown after each other on the same piece of land.  Different plants release different nutrients into the soil, different crops each season help keep the soil fertile.  The other benefit is that different crops lure different species of insects, microorganism and wild plants.  This all helps to increase the biodiversity in environment.  Conventional farming methods used by non organic farmers grow the same crops on the same plots of land year after year.  Each year they need to use more chemical fertilizers and ironically this method of farming has higher production costs.

Fertile Soil

You will find that most organic farmers believe the adage “feed the soil and not the crop”.  This means that if you don’t take care of the soil you will have significantly smaller yields, good yields come from proper soil management.  Chemical fertilizers used by conventional farming methods only help support the crops that season.  Fertilizers also make the soil more acidic, eventually the soil won’t be able to support crop growth.  An organic farmer use different fertilizers like crop residues, compost and they rotate crops.  Watch the video below to see how organic farmers preserve soil.

Smaller Farms

An organic farm tends to be smaller than a traditional farm, more like an old fashioned family farm.  These smaller farms are easier to manage without having to  use extensive machinery.  There will be a variety of crops that are grown on an organic farm instead of hundreds of acres of corn or soy beans.  Variety allows for easier crop rotation.  To protect your workers (from disease and discomfort) and keep them happy, repel mosquitoes naturally with Cedar. The larger farms need heavy machinery for both planting and harvesting, that means lots of fuel consumption and fumes that cause pollution.

Modern organic farming practices can produce high yielding crops while at the same time protecting the environment and the soil for future generations.