"Organic" has become a misused and abused word these days. Many people, including the farmers, sellers and consumers use this word without having much clarity on what it means. And there is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding on this. On the other spectrum, there are many people who argue that there is nothing called "Organic" because scientifically everything, including our body is a mix of chemicals. They argue that even the water we drink is H2O, which is a chemical! In 2010, Royal Society of Chemistry in UK had announced a cash prize of 1Million Pounds for anybody who makes a product without any chemicals and that prize remains unclaimed till now and it will remain so forever.
So what is organic farming and organic food, when everything, including the Jeevamrutha and many other things that are used in Organic/Natural farming are chemical compounds?
Loosely speaking, organic farming is the way of farming where the farm doesn't use any synthetic chemicals. So in this case the farm inputs are sourced from the nature, including plants & animals. In science, molecules containing carbon and hydrogen bonds are called "organic" Many people argue that there is no difference between "natural chemicals" and "synthetic chemicals" as the plants and/or human body don't care about the source of them. And at the end, all the organic food contains naturally occurring chemicals!
Then why is there so much hype about organic farming and organic food? What difference does it make to anybody? Following are some of the noteworthy aspects:
1. Organic farming, if followed properly, is environment-friendly. I am specifically mentioning "if followed properly" because simply replacing the synthetic chemicals with natural chemicals will not make a farm organic. Because organic farming is expected to support bio-diversity through multi-cropping, inter-cropping, mulching and many more techniques. If these practices are not followed and continue with mono-cropping, there is not much benefit from it either environmentally or related to the nutrition value of the food.
2. In the long run, organic farming will (and should) increase the soil fertility instead of reducing it. Also the runoff from the synthetic chemicals can leech into the soil and water (both overground and underground) which will have a long term impact. This once again is not true if monocrop is followed in so called organic farming.
3. Another major impact from organic farming is the reduced carbon foot-print if followed properly, because all the farm inputs are expected to be sourced either on the farm or locally. This shall reduce both the manufacturing cost as well as transport cost.
4. Research has proven that organically grown food has less residues of pesticides compared to the conventionally grown food, most probably due to the animals involved in the process eating more natural food instead of processed food. This definitely makes it more healthy.
There are also arguments that in some cases it is not good and sustainable to get the "natural chemicals" and preparing them in the labs may be the only sustainable option. I have seen the example of the production of "aspirin" pain killer synthetically, although it is there in the leaves/bark of willow trees naturally. Although I am not aware any similar examples related to organic farming, I am sure there will be a few such instances which may or may not be discovered as of now. Anyway that is a topic for another day/another blog!
In conclusion, it is advisable to understand what is the organic farming and organic food and make informed decisions on our choices both as farmers and consumers. However it is true that organic farming and organic food definitely offers lot of benefits to the health of us and our environment.
