Food History

Food changes constantly! The sort of food that people ate in the 1800s is really quite far from the type of food that we get to eat today. For instance, peaches used to resemble cherries in their small stature. Now, peaches are 64x larger! This change is, in part, due to selective breeding. Farmers have been selecting the heartiest, most flavorful, best at bug-repelling plant varieties for a really long time. These sorts of farming practices help create evolved agriculture!

Industry is part of what created the shift. In the 20th century, the industrial approach with agriculture created an abundance of food at more affordable prices. This was because of mechanization, stronger pesticides, fertilizers, and even government subsidies. But the benefits of industrial agriculture also come with some downsides, mainly in terms of the environment. As a result of industrial agriculture, we’ve seen increased erosion, depletion and contamination of soil and water, biodiversity declines, deforestation, unfair labor practices, and the decline of the family farm, which is being replaced with large-scale agriculture.

What is Organic?

Foods that are listed as organic go through a certification process with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA has a rigorous set of standards that organic farms must follow to become certified organic – you can read through some of these regulations and requirements here. The regulations vary depending on what sort of material is being produced – vegetables versus livestock, for instance. These regulations include things like crop rotations, no synthetic fertilizers, no genetically engineered organisms, and no antibiotics. A farm that has been certified as a USDA organic farm is going to be checked regularly to ensure compliance with these regulations.

Organic Struggles

While it might sound pretty simple on the surface, the shift from conventional farming to organic can be quite the challenge. Over time, farmers have become increasingly more reliant on materials like herbicides and synthetic fertilizers. When a farmer who previously used these materials wants to shift over to organic farming, there’s a little bit of a learning curve. The farmer has to learn how to manage the soil and its nutrients without introducing anything prohibited per USDA standards. This process is time-consuming and can often time be expensive. This is especially the case in the in-between period between conventional and organic farming because the organic certification process requires that the farm have a period of time, sometimes up to three years, where they do everything an organic farm would do without yet being labeled as organic.

Another barrier stems from the fact that organic farming equipment can be expensive. There’s a lot of upfront investment that comes with switching over to an organic farm and part of this can even look like labor costs. We see a pretty hefty increase in the cost of labor with organic farms because these farms have to employ people to handle the weeds.

In many ways, our entire agriculture sector is set up to favor conventional farming. It boils down to even the most mundane areas, like transportation and infrastructure. All of these things are designed with conventional farming in mind and this creates a separation so that organic farms have to find and tap into a totally different market.

Organic farms lack resources in other areas as well, such as support. Conventional farms have more information available to them because there’s been more funding and research done for conventional agriculture. This makes it really hard for organic farmers to handle organic-specific queries and hardships. Universities often have extension offices around the nation that assist agricultural regions. Most of these extension offices don’t have an organic specialist. Even in California, the state that has the highest number of organic farms and is generally the largest agricultural state doesn’t have someone who specializes in organic farming. In fact, there was a semi-recent study conducted with 1,800 farmers who were transitioning to organic agriculture. These farmers made it clear that mentoring and one-on-one technical assistance with organic specialists was critical to their success and hard to come by.

Scientists even have some worries. As farms grow larger, some scientists are worried that organic farms will begin to lose some of the diversity that makes them a more sustainable option. There are also some qualms with the practices that organic farms have to implement to replace the conventional practices they had previously. Tilling, for instance, is a huge source of controversy. When we till land, we disrupt the soil’s natural ecosystem. Since organic farms are not able to use herbicides, they often have to turn to tilling because it helps to ward off weeds.

America and Organic Ag

In America, we’ve definitely seen an increase in the amount of organic food we buy. According to the Organic Trade Association, the organic market surpassed $45 billion in sales in 2017. Compared to the previous year, this was a 6% increase. When looking at organic sales over the past decade, the numbers have doubled! You can also see an increase in the way we consume organics by looking at the acreage. We’ve seen a 20% increase from 2011 – 2018. Our total organic acreage totals over 5 million acres of land! However, those 5 million acres still account for less than 1% of our total domestic farmland.

What’s more, is that our domestic demand for organic food is outpacing our supply. This means that we’re importing a lot of the organic food that we’re purchasing! To be exact, the US has imported more than $2 billion worth of organic food in the last year and this is just accounting for the foods that the USDA tracks, which is currently capped at 40. This means that the $2 billion worth of organic foods is probably significantly more than just $2 billion!

A potential area where organic farming could prove to be especially useful is in the job field. Organic agriculture could help fulfill the gap in jobs for rural Americans. According to one organic farmer, Bob Quinn, a conventional farm of a similar size to an organic farm could support one family, with the added benefit of season employment. An organic farm, however, is able to provide for five families through employment.

We’ve already seen some companies step-up to assist with the organic movement. These companies have helped create systems to confront the unique struggles that organic farmers might face. Some companies (i.e. Annie’s or Costco) have even committed to buying from organic farms before the farms have even produced anything. This commitment acts as a sort of premium so that farmers are not facing a massive loss as they go through the transition process from conventional to organic.

Organic Benefits

Rodale, a research institution focused on organic farming, has shown that organic goods actually requires less energy while producing less greenhouse gas emission and building soil rather than depleting it. Some organic farms are even reporting that they are seeing increases in their yields – and these increases continue to increase as the years go by! Some plants, like corn, squash, or soybeans, are even outpacing conventional farms with their yields.

How can we help?

Many of the people in the organic field believe that the brunt of the shift towards organic relies on the consumer. As consumers, we have a lot of buying power that helps to shape the market. If you’re interested in organics and want to see an uptick in organic farming, the best thing you can do according to professionals is to simply continue buying organic. For more information on local organic farms, you can check out this. If you don’t have accessible organic farms near you, check our local grocery store! There’s even an online delivery service for produce, called Misfits Market that puts an emphasis on organically grown foods – which can be shipped right to your door!

Organic Agriculture