Can Farms Be Greener Than Organic?

Farmers' Market season is starting in Colorado. At first, it's mostly potatoes and mustard greens. Still, it's exciting to buy some soil-covered produce that tastes fresh and didn't travel thousands of miles, and to meet the farmers who grow my food.

One of the most common questions I hear while talking to the farmers is "Is your produce organic?" At my favorite local farm, the answer is always "no." However, if you hear that answer, ask a follow-up question: "Why not?" For small local farms, chances are good that farmers choose not to go organic because of the cost and the questionable sustainability of the federal organic program and label. Perhaps the most sustainable small farms have moved to "active fallow farming," which is greener in some ways than organic farming.

One such non-organic farm is Coastalfields Farm in Arvada, Colorado. Co-directors Aaron Brachfeld and Mary Choate don't use any pesticides or fertilizers, even the natural stuff that is approved and required under the United States Organic Act.

Coastalfields can't put the organic label on its home-delivered and farmstand produce.

"The producer must use management practices to prevent crop pests, weeds and diseases," reads the federal bill. Fertilizers or other pest and weed controls are required under the law, at least according to Choate's interpretation.

"It does limit what your can use, but requires you to use a lot of things that aren't good for the environment," said Choate. She is the author of "Organic Lies," which she said addresses common misconceptions regarding the Organic Act.

She believes even organic fertilizers are detrimental to plants, animals and people. Her farm uses a very basic approach

Coastalfields covers a total of three acres across several small plots with rotating crops of vegetables, herbs and fruits When Brachfeld and Choate took over the land, the properties were unkempt back yards or barren polluted sites.

They are still perfecting their "active fallow" method - a very traditional and sustainable form of agriculture that is no longer a part of standard farming. Coastalfields shuns pesticides, fertilizers and animal traps.

In 1997, Brachfeld and Choate started researching a return to active fallow farming. They till their fields to mix and enrich the soil, then plant a random and rotating mix of crops with little concern for neat rows or distinct areas for each plant. The plants are then left to grow with no additional inputs to either encourage growth or discourage pests.

"It is natural except that we till," Choate said. "We never kill anything by it. It doesn't kill things. It doesn't affect neighboring areas."

There is no lettuce patch or row of fava bean plants. Whatever comes up is interspersed with other crops. They do nothing to kill weeds or bugs. They believe all organisms help foster healthy plants and biodiversity.

"We let everything in," Brachfeld said. "We don't consider anything a pest. It's all beneficial in some way."

The result is a farm that is more sustainable and healthy than an organic farm, with equally sustainable and enticing produce.