Organic farming: The other conservation farming system

T HE attention given various forms of conservation tillage in the last decade has overshadowed interest in organic farming. But organic farming systems also produce conservation benefits extending to soils, water, nutrients, energy, and wildlife. Moreover, organic farming today is economically and agronomically competitive with conventional and conservation tillage systems. What is organic farming? It is not a well-defined system but a concept, an approach to farming. It is a group of techniques and much more. It is an ethic, a set of attitudes about the land and about farmers' relationship with the land. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides the following definition: “Organic farming is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives. To the maximum extent feasible, organic farming systems rely upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off farm organic wastes, mechanical cultivation, mineral bearing rocks, and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply …