Principles
7 Key Principles of Organic and Bio-Dynamic Production
The seven key principles of Organic and Bio-Dynamic production (from the Australian standard) as follows:
- Producing food of high nutritional value;
- Enhancing biological cycles in farming systems;
- Maintaining and increasing fertility of soils;
- Working as far as practicable within a closed system;
- Avoiding pollution resulting from agriculture;
- Minimising the use of non-renewable resources;
- Co-existing with and protecting the environment;
Articles within this section focus on the core principles and standards that you need to understand if you are an Organic or Bio-Dynamic producer.
How to use this section
We have placed a number of pages in this section of the website, to introduce the reader to the basic methods used by organic growers and the theory behind it.
There is a great deal of useful information here, and we will be updating and adding to it constantly. Come back often to check us out, and explore some of the many case studies in this website, to see how growers at all stages of organic growing, from ‘first stage conversion’ to a few with four decades of experience, are applying the principles to a wide range of farming situations and crops.
What is organic growing?
Organic growing is a system of food production that does not use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs). However organic growing is much more than just the non-use of certain chemical inputs. When properly understood, organic growing involves a totally integrated management system, to maintain soil fertility, pest management and productivity, while also achieving a high level of sustainability.
The approach to organic growing used in this site draws on the history of what we will call, “the organic movement’, and is based upon a guideline standard document published by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). The ‘organic movement’ is the community of promoters and practitioners of organic agriculture, and the consumers of their products, who rejected modern, chemical, industrial agriculture in favour of a more environmentally responsible, humane and socially just agriculture system. For about five decades or more they struggled against the dominant paradigm, with little support and considerable ridicule.
The good sense, practical know-how and commitment of the pioneers of organic-sustainable agriculture has eventually paid off. Organic food is becoming increasingly popular and the organic movement has matured into an industry. Indeed, today organic is the fastest growing agriculture sector worldwide.
How can we grow organically?
Organic growers replace the usual commercial chemical inputs with natural products such as compost, rock dust fertilizers and seaweed products. Because organic growers do not use fast acting synthetic inputs, they must rely on the combination of high levels of soil microbial activity and humic acids for nutrient exchange.
Organic growers must become very good farm managers to succeed. Organic growers have to know how to work with nature at many levels, and in every farming decision, starting with choice of crop, right through to post harvest handling. Good horticultural and agricultural commonsense and simple cultural methods are very important for organic growers, but they also benefit from recent scientific advancements and technological innovations. Organic growers use all the usual modern tools such as precision planters and bed formers, and computerized irrigation management; and some less-common ones, such as thermal weed control (flame and steam), and brush hoes. Organic growers also use hi-tech pest control products such as Trichdex and BT, insect pheromones and up-to-date spraying technology. New research often confirms old proven techniques, such as the use of milk sprays to combat mildew on zucchini or beans.
All “organic growers” try to work with nature in every growing decision, including:
- Crop and variety selection, for vigour, early establishment and pest resistance
- Planting times, to achieve early vigour and to avoid periods of major pest activity
- Irrigation management, to obtain maximum benefit from reduced water use
- Pruning and training, for plant health and vigour and to encourage sunlight penetration
- Disease control, using resistant varieties, rotations and permitted natural products
- Natural fertility building, using techniques such as the use of crop rotations, legumes, reduced tillage and non-inversion tillage, as well as natural fertility from crushed mineral rocks, humates, seaweed and recycled organic matter
- Pest control, utilizing techniques such as encouragement of beneficial organisms, traps and barriers, plant extracts and other naturally occurring insecticides.
The importance of organic soil management
Development of a healthy ‘organic’ soil profile is very important in organic growing. Only a well-balanced naturally healthy soil is able to continue producing wholesome food for many years without the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
Soil is the fundamental resource for organic growers, because plant health, including pest and disease resistance and the ability to fight off and recover from pest attack, depends so much upon good plant nutrition. Nutrition based upon a healthy organic soil allows the plant to forage for the nutrients it needs, in response to the weather conditions and physiological processes occurring within the plant. Organic plants are not force fed, but are permitted to control the process of nutrient intake according to the growth conditions they are experiencing, and therefore are better able to select the elements that they require at any time.
Because organic growers concentrate on soil development, and allow the plant to feed itself, organic plants are generally well supplied with vital trace elements. These nutritional elements are very important in the production of flavour compounds, and consequently organic produce tastes good and keeps better. When combined with good post-harvest practices, this delivers the best gourmet produce, and protects the environment at the same time.
Other important considerations for organic growing
Animal welfare is another important consideration in organic farming. Only free-range animals are permitted, and permanent cages or permanent tethering is banned. Organic farming emphasizes a holistic farm management approach, where rotations and ruminant animals play an integral role to the system.
The principle of fair trade is also imbedded within organic standards. It ensures that the basic and financial needs of workers are provided for, that they get a fair share of returns from their production, and that workers are not grossly exploited.
Maintenance of biological diversity is also important. In two hundred years of farming in Australia we have dramatically reduced forest cover, exposed fragile soils and threatened the very existence of may species, by vegetation clearance, other habitat disturbance, pollution and trapping or shooting. And the destruction is still continuing, here in Australia, and in the developing world. Organic growers make some room for nature, because they rely on nature for the many free services it offers, such as pest control, because nature adds value, such as the medicines and other products we can extract from it, and because nature has intrinsic value of itself.
Organic growers:
- Maximize recycling and use of internal resources
- Maintain and improve the fertility, structure and biological activity of the soil based on compost and composted manure
- Maximize use of natural biological processes for nutrient provision and pest and disease control
- Maximize use of renewable energy sources
- Prevent environmental pollution
- Refrain from the use of any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides
The seven principles of organic farming, according to the Australian National Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture (second edition), are:
- The production of food of high nutritional value
- The enhancement of biological cycles in farming systems
- Maintaining and increasing fertility of soils
- Working as far as practicable within a closed system
- The avoidance of pollution resulting from agriculture
- Minimising the use of non-renewable resources
- The co-existence with, and the protection of, the environment.
Organic certification
Most commercial organic growers find they have to become ‘certified’ with one of the organic certification bodies (CBs) to find appropriate markets for their produce. Consumers of organic food expect to see evidence of certification at retail shops or farm stalls, to provide a guarantee that organic produce is genuine. They expect this guarantee because organic produce often costs more than non-organic and because many organic consumers are specifically seeking the implied health and environmental benefits from organic farming practices.
CBs operate by a set of rules called Organic Standards that include lists of permitted and non-permitted practices and inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, animal health products etc.). The Standards also require growers to keep accurate records of all inputs used, production figures and income. Certified farmers must also care for their land and soil in a sustainable way, and even the parts of the farm that are not used for production are managed to prevent soil erosion and to encourage biodiversity.
Organic certification requires that produce can be tracked all the way ‘from paddock to plate’. Inspection of organic producers and handlers ensures that there is a complete audit chain that can prove organic produce has been grown, harvested, stored and transported in a way that protects the produce from contamination by synthetic chemicals or radiation. Organic produce therefore is sold almost exclusively through direct outlets or via certified organic wholesalers and retailers.
You don’t have to be certified to gain the on-farm benefits of organic farming, but you do have to be certified before you can export produce with an organic label, and most dedicated organic wholesalers and retailers will not sell uncertified produce.
Certification is further explained in the section ‘How certification works’.
Do I have to be certified?
You don’t have to be certified to gain the on-farm benefits of organic farming. Organic techniques can be used exclusively, or in combination with some non-organic approaches, to improve the overall sustainability of growing systems.
Certification is generally required before most specialist organic wholesalers and large organic stores or supermarkets will sell produce as organic. Organic outlets sometimes sell uncertified organic produce as ‘conventional’, or perhaps with some unique identification system operated by the shop (‘local organic’ etc), or the producer may sell it directly into regular (non-organic) wholesale markets. Uncertified organic produce, with some form of ‘self-declaration’ is sometimes sold at farmers’ markets or on-farm stalls, or by organic home delivery schemes.
You don’t have to go all the way to fully certified organic to use the information in this website. We have many friends who are not fully organic. They are all trying to reduce their chemical inputs, only ever use chemicals when it is not practical or economic to use other methods, always use chemicals with appropriate care, and try to make their enterprises as sustainable as possible. Some of their stories appear in this website too. They are generally identified as ‘biological’ growers.
