Organic Basics
Organic farming recognises the direct connection between our health and the food we eat. Strict regulations, known as ‘standards’, define what organic farmers can and cannot do – and place a strong emphasis on the protection of wildlife and the environment.
In organic farming: pesticides are severely restricted – instead organic farmer develop nutrient-rich soil to grow strong healthy crops and encourage wildlife to help control pests and disease artificial chemical fertilisers are prohibited – instead organic farmers develop a healthy, fertile soil by growing and rotating a mixture of crops using clover to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere animal cruelty is prohibited and a truly free-range life for farm animals is guaranteed the routine use of drugs, antibiotics and wormers is disallowed - instead the farmer will use preventative methods, like moving animals to fresh pasture and keeping smaller herd size the production and use of GM in animal feed is banned
Start at the beginning and the end – the SOIL
Soil is a living system, must be fed and nurtured What is removed must be replaced. There are 5 interactive factors in soil formation: biota climate topography parent material time C:N Dynamic mixture of living and dead cells – soil organic matter (SOM), and mineral particles in sufficiently small sizes to permit the intimate colloidal interactions characteristic of soil. Clays are basic to aggregation formation, and have mostly a net negative charge. Micro-organisms are also negatively charged at neutral pH, as are most SOM constituents. Attachments between 2 negatively charged units is possible by ionic bonding via multi-valence cations. One bond attaches to a micro-organism and another to clay particle. Microbial polysaccharides and fibrils with strong attachment characteristics also bind soil particles together. Aggregate formation initiated with microflora and root produced filaments and polysaccharides that combine with clays leads to organic material-mineral complexes. Soil structure created when physical forces (drying, shrink-swell, freeze-thaw, root growth, animal movement and compaction) mould soil into aggregates. In soil aggregates the organic matter is protected.
Organic matter
Phosphorus
Soil Association