Organic Agriculture

According to the codex alimentarus commission and all existing national regulation,''Organic agriculture is a holistic production management system that avoids use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified organisms minimize pollution of air, water, and optimizes the health and productivity of independent communities of plants, animals and people.

Organic farming has been one of the fastest growing segments of U.S. agriculture for over a decade. The U.S. had under a million acres of certified organic farmland when Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. By the time USDA implemented national organic standards in 2002, certified organic farmland had doubled, and doubled again between 2002 and 2005. Organic livestock sectors have grown even faster. ERS collected data from USDA-accredited State and private certification groups to calculate the extent of certified organic farmland acreage and livestock in the United States. These are presented in 13 tables showing the change in U.S. organic acreage and livestock numbers from 1992 to 2005. Data for 1997 and 2000-2005 are presented by State and commodity. Data for 2000-2005 include the number of certified operations, by State.

Government efforts to boost organic production have focused primarily on developing national certification standards to assure consumers of consistent product quality and on streamlining interstate commerce in organically grown products. In addition, several States have begun subsidizing conversion to organic farming as a way of capturing the environmental benefits of these systems. Also, many USDA agencies have started or expanded programs and pilot projects to help organic producers with production and marketing problems and risks.

Fifty-three organic certification organizations, including 19 State programs, conducted third-party certification of organic production and handling in 2005. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service implements national legislation and implemented rules in October 2002 that require all except the smallest organic growers (less than $5,000 in sales) be certified by a State or private agency accredited under USDA's national organic standards.

Organic farming systems rely on practices such as cultural and biological pest management, and virtually prohibit synthetic chemicals in crop production and antibiotics or hormones in livestock production. For example, organic farmers provide habitat for predators and parasites of crop pests, calculate planting/harvesting dates and rotate crops to maintain soil fertility, and cycle animal and green manures as fertilizer. Organic livestock growers try to accommodate an animal's natural nutritional and behavioral requirements.

Overall, certified organic cropland and pasture accounted for about 0.5 percent of U.S. total farmland in 2005. Only a small percentage of the top U.S. field crops?corn (0.2 percent), soybeans (0.2 percent), and wheat (0.5 percent)?were grown under certified organic farming systems. On the other hand, organic carrots (6 percent of U.S. carrot acreage), organic lettuce (4 percent), organic apples (3 percent) and other fruit and vegetable crops were more commonly organic grown in 2005. Markets for organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs have been developing for decades in the United States, and fresh produce is still the top-selling organic category in retail sales. Organic livestock was beginning to catch up with produce in 2005, with 1 percent of U.S. dairy cows and 0.6 percent of the layer hens managed under certified organic systems.

Benefits of Organic Agriculture

''The strongest feature of organic farming and cost is it's reliance on fossil-fuel independent and locally available production assets;working with natural process increases cost-effectiveness and resilience of agro-ecosystems to climatic stress,'' the paper says.'

''By managing biodiversity in time[rotations] and space[mixed cropping],organic farmers use their labour and environmental services to intensify production in a sustainable way.

Organic Agriculture also breaks the vicious circle of indebtedness for agricultural inputs which causes an alarming rate of farmers ' suicides''.

The paper quotes recent models of a global food supply grown organically which indicate that organic agriculture could produce enough food on a global per capita basis for current world population.