Article Index
Everything you wanted to know about organic, but didn’t know who to ask
Food quality – a holistic view
The six aspects of food quality
What is organic farming?
An ecosystem approach
Biodiversity and habitat
Start with the soil
Why farm naturally?
Ten Reasons to Eat Organic Foods
All Pages

Food is fundamental

For some people getting enough food is a fundamental problem that absorbs most of their income. Most Australians are lucky enough to spend less than 20% of our income on food. We worry instead about the nature of our food.

A healthy diet is a priority for many people, especially members of the population who have a higher education and higher disposable income, who have food allergies, or a health problem that may respond to improved nutrition (and we think that is many, nay most ailments).

It isn’t straightforward to sort our way through the food information maze, as there are many conflicting claims. Even simple choices, such as which cooking oil to use, are extremely perplexing for many people. Vegetable oil perhaps, but which one? What are the advantages and disadvantages of olive, canola, or even coconut oil? Do less popular oils like flaxseed have a role? What about cold pressed oils? What about the processing aids, preservatives, flavours, flavour removers and other additives, the packaging materials, or even the affect of the farming system that produced the oilseeds?

Food quality – a holistic view

Food regulations concentrate on ‘safety’ issues.  We all want food free of contamination and we should be grateful that a responsible authority supervises the use of food additives, and pesticide residues.  We don’t want BSE, BST, salmonella or HUV either and we need laws and monitoring systems to keep these out of our food.

But ‘food safety’ is only one aspect of food quality.

Conventional food markets tend to define food quality narrowly – food safety issues are acknowledged and ‘appearance’ dominates any other considerations.

Take an apple.  The conventional market classifies the apple according to the following:

• Size - eg will it fit through the 54 – 55 mm grading slot
• Colour - basically three choices here – red, yellow green
• Roundness – is the fruit a uniform shape – does it have a lumpy appearance
• Freedom from blemish – are there marks from fruit rubbing, or russeting

While we all like our food to look good, but there is much more to food quality than these ‘external’, or ‘cosmetic’ factors.

Unfortunately the appearance demands of the food industry severely limit the choices of farmers.  The potato which produces the ‘fry’ which McDonalds want may not be ideally suited to cultivation, or produce the highest yield.  The round, uniform apple variety may not perform well in an organic growing regime.  A traditional variety may produce three times the level of antioxidants and twice the level of vitamin C, and grow successfully without artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

Surely good food should be good for you.


Australians have the best food of any nation and we should be thankful – but that does not mean there can’t be further improvements to the system.  We still have environmental problems from food production and processing, a rising toll of diet-related diseases, and food that “doesn’t taste like it used to”.

Can top quality food come from a system that keeps animals in inhumane conditions?
Is it OK to add dye to a yabby or a salmon so it looks ‘fresh’, ‘natural’ and ‘high quality’?

Aware consumers believe that the internal characteristics of the apple are more important that the external ones:

• Is it free from pesticide residue?
• Does it have good nutritional qualities?
• Does it have a good aroma, texture and taste?
• Is it produced in a responsible, low input, non-polluting system?
• Is it produced in a ‘humane’ system?

The six aspects of food quality

Sensual - Does it feel good to eat.  Does the taste, smell, texture and appearance produce that wonderful sensation that comes from biting into a really good apple?

Nutritional - Does it contribute to a balanced diet.  Does it supply the vitamins, protein and trace elements that we need for good health and vitality?

Biological - Does it produce allergic reactions?  Are there additives or chemical residues?  Are there beneficial aspects (such as live gut-cleansing bacteria in yoghurt)?

Authenticity - Is it the food you expect?  Has it been synthesised or adulterated in production, processing or storage?  Does the ‘brownness’ of bread come from the grain or is it just ‘white’ bread with added malt (for colour)?

Functional - Is the food appropriate to its specific purpose.  For instance, some varieties of potatoes are more or less suitable for boiling, baking, roasting, chipping or mashing.

Ethical – Are environmental, social and political values preserved or encouraged during production, processing and distribution?  Were animals treated humanely?  Was the grower paid a living wage, or was a poor third-world labourer exploited.  Was there unnecessary transportation of the product?

Real food provides real health.  Really good real food should care for the health of the consumer, but it should not damage the environment, threaten the viability of the farmer, or treat animals badly.  You can seek out food that scores well on as many of the food quality criteria listed above as possible.

What is organic farming?

For most people organic farming means “growing without the use of chemicals”.  For practicing organic farmers it means much more than a list of ‘chemicals which they cannot use.  For them it is farming with nature as the ‘model’ and includes many positive practices that replace chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

Organic farming is also sometimes referred to as ‘natural’, ‘biological’, ‘ecological’ and various other names.  Biodynamics is a special form of organic farming and Permaculture is a design concept which is used by many organic farmers to order and plan their properties.

Whatever the name we give to a particular form of alternative growing systems, they will share some common goals and objectives and be based upon similar underlying concepts.

Reduced consumption of non renewable resources.

To be sustainable we should minimise or avoid the use of nonrenewable materials, especially fossil fuels for fertiliser and chemical manufacture and for transport.  These fuels are not renewable in a time frame relevant to a human lifespan and using them inevitably causes pollution and contributes to climate change.

Soil and clean water are renewable resources in a healthy world but the necessary conditions for them to be renewing are sometimes not present in our modern farming landscapes.  Organic farming recognises these resources as being of prime importance and treats them with proper respect and care.

Effective use of natural techniques

Simply removing the chemical inputs is not enough.  Without inputs and management of some type the natural resource base will eventually run down.  Successful organic farming therefore depends on understanding and using proven methods such as crop rotation, use of animal manures and crop residues, use of legumes and cultural, biological and (natural) chemical pest control.

Instead of using a chemical for pest control, organic farmers may use information about the biology or life cycle of the pest to alter conditions on the farm and make them less favourable for the pest.  Use of knowledge about the environment to devise management actions, rather than physical inputs, is a key feature of natural farming.

The farmer is therefore an integral part of the farm. The farmer must understand the principles at work in nature and the specific manifestation of those principles on their particular place on earth.  While the principles will be common to natural farming anywhere, the importance of intimate understanding of how these principles apply to the local situation requires careful observation, cautious experiment and appropriate experience, skill and labour.

An ecosystem approach

Good knowledge of crop agronomy, soil science, pest biology etc are important for our progress and improvement of the earth as our home.  When this knowledge only exists in the laboratory or in isolated 'lumps' specific to each field of research, its potential is never realised.  For knowledge to be really useful it must be shared and it must be made relevant to the whole world in which it operates.

Nothing exists in isolation.  Striving for a better understanding of how all the bits fit together is a critical feature of natural farming.  If we relied only on simple time-limited observations of herbicide use we would be pleased with the results in almost every case.  We apply the herbicide and the weeds die, therefore the desired effect was obtained.  Closer examination may reveal poor crop growth, changes to soil biology, accumulation of residues in birds and animals and contamination of water.  Only an ecosystem approach can ensure that we are aware of the complex interactions between the various component parts of the farming system.

Biodiversity and habitat

One of the aims of organic farming is to work with nature, we must therefore make room for nature.  We do this because the myriad creatures and life forms have beauty and because they give value to us, in our enjoyment and in the many products known or as yet undiscovered, which they yield.  Even more important are the intricate dependencies that exist in the web of life, which starts with the flea which bites the flea but ends with greatest achievements of human civilisation.

Agriculture has caused much habitat destruction and species loss.  A responsible, sustainable agriculture must take active steps to make room for nature again.  Organic farmers will use habitat to reintroduce beneficial effects back to the farm, such as soil stabilisation, climate improvement, and shelter for predatory insects or birds.

Start with the soil

Maintenance and increase of the long term fertility of soil is a fundamental principle of natural farming.  We utterly depend upon a thin, fragile mantle of soil to produce our food but we have been reckless with it.  55% of arid range lands and 45% of agricultural land in Australia requires treatment for degradation.  While conventional farmers everywhere are now realising that they must stop the destruction and nurture the soils they have left, large areas remain damaged and are uneconomic to repair.

Organic farmers, with their intimate knowledge of soil and the teaming life within it, are capable of restoring soils faster than nature.  Techniques which they use include deep ripping, non-inversion tillage, growth of cover crops, mulching, composting, introductions of earthworms and dung beetles and careful study of the best time for any of these operations.

Soil is the foundation of natural farming principles and development of the soil is important to the health and nutrition of every other living thing on an organic farm. Plants and animals are fed via the soil whenever possible to encourage biological cycles and the populations of soil micro-organisms which provide so many vital services, without charge.

Why farm naturally?

Agriculture, in contrast to other industries, has the potential to be self-sustaining. Soil and water, if managed well, can be perpetually self-renewing into the far future.  High production agriculture is supported by subsidised energy in fertilisers, machinery, irrigation, chemicals and transportation.  'Production' in this context is high only if applied to harvested output only.

Productivity of small scale diversified producers can be greater than conventional agriculture.  'Productivity' in this context means the ratio of return from input, with the total cost of the system included in the calculation.

Small adjustments to the system are being made continually by all farmers.  Conservation farming, tree planting, integrated pest control, catchment management and other developments are all positive contributions to a sustainable agriculture.  But to really extent the sustainability of the system, organic farmers advocate the importance of the complex inter-relationships in nature.  They begin with the concept of a whole system and design their systems consciously, using the greatest possible diversity and complementary features of the parts.

Will it work

Farming is not easy and organic farming is not easier than other farming, and may be more demanding during the conversion period.  Many farmers have made organic farming pay and have improved their lifestyle at the same time.  Some have improved their returns from farming.  In some areas or industries, converting to organic farming is harder, and some areas lend themselves readily.

The US National Academy of Sciences published a major report on "Alternative Agriculture" in September 1989.  It said "Well-managed alternative farms use less synthetic chemical fertilisers, pesticides and antibiotics without necessarily decreasing, and, in some cases, increasing per-acre crop yields and the productivity of livestock systems....Wider adoption of proven alternative systems would result in ever greater economic gains for the nation."

Ten Reasons to Eat Organic Foods

1. Protect Future Generations
   US research suggests that children receive four times the exposure of many common pesticides in food of an adult.  This is because of their smaller body weight and their need for high energy foods.  The food choice you make now will impact on your children’s health in the future.
2. Prevent Soil Erosion
   Agricultural soil is eroding many times faster than it is built up naturally.  A one kilo loaf of bread is produced at the cost of seven kilos of soil lost.  Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming, but in conventional farming the soil is treated more as a medium for holding plants roots.  Conventional farmers tend to rely on chemical fertilisers, ignoring the soil ecosystem.
3. Protect Water Quality
   Water covers three-quarters of the planet and makes up two-thirds of our body. Pesticides contaminate water and kill fish and other organisms.
4. Save Energy
   Australian farms are no longer the family based small business of the past.  Modern farms are highly dependent on fossil fuels.  More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilisers for use on US farms than is used to cultivate, and harvest all the crops in the United States.  Organic farming is still mainly based upon labor-intensive practices such as weeding by hand and using green manures, crop covers and other simple techniques.  Organic produce also tends to travel a shorter distance from the farm to your plate, thus reducing the amount of energy used.
5. Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate
   Many pesticides approved for use were registered before there was extensive research which links these chemicals to cancer and other diseases.  In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides to be carcinogenic.  A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause an additional 1.4 million cancer cases among Americans over their lifetime.  The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms, and are harmful to humans.  In addition to cancer, pesticides are linked to birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutations.
6. Protect Farm Workers Health
   A natural Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a six time greater risk than non-farmers, of contracting cancer.  Farm worker health is a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticide use can be poorly regulated (where does your coffee come from?).  An estimated one million people are poisoned annually by pesticides.
7. Help Small Farmers
   Although more and more large scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small independently owned and operated family farms of less than 100 acres.  Small farms are under pressure and Organic farming could become one of the few survival tactics left for family farms.
8. Support a True Economy
   Although organic foods might seem more expensive than conventional foods, conventional food prices do not reflect hidden cost borne by taxpayers, including hidden costs such as pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean up, damage to the environment (which is priceless) and costs to the medical system.
9. Promote Biodiversity
   Monoculture is the practice of planting large areas of land with the same crop year after year.  While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the absence of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients.  To replace the nutrients farmers use chemical fertilisers in large amounts, which only compounds the problem.  Pesticides kill wildlife and soil organisms.  Organic farmers know that they must reintroduce natural areas and encourage life in the soil.
10. Better Taste and More Flavour
    Organic farming starts with an abundance of nutrients in the soil, which produces healthy plants.  Healthy plants that are well supplied with minerals can make all the flavour producing substances they need.  Many chefs use organic foods because they are well cared for during their production and they taste better!