Very shortly, Markham will join the ranks of the privileged few communities to welcome into theirs a Whole Foods Market. The emblem of all things organic, sustainable and politically correct will be offering their brand of organic produce within a bicycle ride of my home. It doesn't seem all that long ago that I recall Loblaws setting aside a small space in their produce section for organic items; they now have sections throughout the store. And the movement is only just getting started, with just an estimated 2% of the share of the food market. What is this new organic movement all about?
Hey, that trip we took into the future was fun, wasn't it? How about another trip? Into the past...say 150 or so years. What did the world look like then and how was food prepared? In the Victorian era there was simply food. Farmers struggled to eek out a living on leased land hoping only to keep mother nature happy enough to let them bring their crops in without too much loss. New technologies and some new fertilizers were available, but for most farmers around the world these were simply too costly for them to utilize. Virtually all produce (vegetable and animal) was grown in a manner that most today would consider organic. The need for a distinction between organic and conventional produce was non-existent, and the first supermarket was still about 50 years away.
With little in the way of synthetic chemicals available to farmers, finding the acceptable level of pests and invasive weeds meant constant monitoring and back-breaking manual labour. The keys to success then are the same used in organic farming today: soil health and water preservation. Organic farming attempts to identify the beneficial plants, insects and animals and use them to regulate the unwanted pests without the use of modern pesticides, seen as harmful. Compost, crop rotation and manure are the chief forms of fertilizer used to eliminate synthetic forms also thought to be harmful. And ground cover crops are the preferred manner of preserving moisture in the soil. The ideal of a living garden is the driving philosophy and, when accomplished, the pride of every organic farmer.
And this form of farming has many beneficial properties depending on the level to which one is prepared to dedicate their farm. One of the most serious problems that synthetic fertilizers have caused is the proliferation of invasive weeds and algae in our rivers, streams, lakes and oceans due to nitrogen run off. This is causing many of our fresh water species to be choked out as they struggle to deal with these invasive species. Organic farming looks to limit this run off by using natural sources of nitrogen that, in theory, should remain in the soil longer.
Another serious problem with a modern farm is the constant tilling and turning of large swaths of land causing serious soil erosion. In the early part of the 20th century the US government commissioned a continuing study of soil erosion only to see erosion increase in the nearly 100 years since the office was formed. Many organic methods help solve this issue, again in theory, by top dressing with compost and using a no-till method of farming in some areas.
The modern farm is one of speciality. Growing large amounts of one or two crops allows the farmer to realize the greatest return on investment. But, this use of land is inherently risky as all crops are susceptible to variations in weather and other environmental risks, i.e. insects and disease. As we saw in Irish history, this kind of specialization can have deadly consequences. The organic model, with its requirement of symbiosis, encourages a greater level of biodiversity which is not only a benefit to the environment and the farmer, but contributes to a greater variety in our diets which leads to a healthier lifestyle.
The pre-Victorian and early Victorian era farmer was not concerned with global warming and greenhouse gases. The industrial revolution was in its infancy and green house gases were, while existent, not at the levels we have today. Farming at this time was contributing little to the accumulation of these gases with most of it from clearing forests to make room for more farm land. Motorized farm equipment had yet to be invented and the horse was still the main source of power on farms of the day. Petroleum use was almost non-existent and the use of those products in production of fertilizers and pesticides had yet to be developed. Organic farming, today, tries to replicate that environment and seeks to reduce the use of petroleum products in all aspects of production. Many proponents advocate the scaling down of the typical farm. And, on the small scale, the organic farm could accomplish some reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
For a Victorian farmer, watering their crops meant waiting for rain or using the horse and their backs to haul large amounts of water to the fields. The lack of motorized water pumps meant that water needed to be managed. Part of that management included diverting rivers and streams into irrigation channels in the fields and the use of cover crops to ensure the moisture stayed in the ground. Farmers at this time had as little concern about water shortages as they did about greenhouse gases, but the cost in manual labour to bring water to the fields was high enough to use water wisely. Today's organic farmer is faced with more drought, less ground water, desertification and higher costs for water in some areas. The motivation to preserve water is just as high and use of those traditional methods has helped to keep crops well irrigated. As we inch toward 10 billion human population the preservation of water will become ever more critical to our survival.
Today's hipster foodies gorge themselves at the trendiest snout-to-hoof restaurants on everything from sweetbreads to liver to pig's foot. In the Victorian era, the use of every scrap of an animal, and all everyday items for that matter, was a matter of survival. The tastier, more tender parts of an animal were as preferred then as they are now, but staving off starvation meant brains, hearts, eyeballs, tongues and ears were as common as rib eyes and loins. Bones were used for stocks and soups and then sold for turning into meal. Fabric was re-used, recycled and the tiniest scraps were sent out for shod; the spinning of scraps into yarn (it's this practice that we get the word shoddy as a synonym for lesser quality items). This "waste not want not" attitude is being resurrected by the organic movement as waste reduction becomes more critical and once again a matter of our survival. Discouraging the use of plastics and disposables helps divert tons of waste that would otherwise end up in land fills where it would remain for eternity.
Where livestock is concerned, the organic movement demands a reduction in the use of antibiotics and growth hormone as well as a greater emphasis on more humane forms of farming. Every attempt is made to provide livestock with a free ranging lifestyle that is thought to be less stressful. Livestock are seen as part of the living farm, and their presence a vital cog in the farm machine, therefor, animals are to be treated with all due respect from the moment they are brought into the world until their inevitable departure.
In short, the organic farmer's goal is to build a living farm with a harmonic balance of respect for the land and animals, care for the soil and produce, preservation of the natural world and conservation of water and natural resources. This is not a new philosophy, this is farming through most of human history. Is it a form of food production that is sustainable and can it feed the 10 billion people that will be alive on the planet in 50 years? While it was the method that fed the majority of the human family in the past, will it be the answer to feeding the majority of them in the future? Can it do the job without stripping even more natural habitat from other species already on the brink of extinction? Will it help cool a planet whose warming is already out of control?
The answer to all those questions is yes and no.
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