The Industrialization of Organic Agriculture

1981 Words8 Pages
The Industrialization of Organic Agriculture Timothy Perry DeVry University The Industrialization of Organic Agriculture Organic farming standards and principals face many challenges in today’s farming industry. Over the years much research has provided insight into the productivity of organic farming to be far less in yield than its industrialized counterpart though organic farming provides many benefits to both the consumers heath and to the land that it’s cultivated from. As organic farming continues its popularity, greater demand for product is soaring and as a result, organic farms are faced with challenging the principals and standards to change. The challenges of organic agriculture are constraints contributing to farming profitability through product yield, and the availability of organic product versus the demand of the local population; whereas the practices of industrialized organic farming can better provide greater yields and resulting profitability, while meeting the principles of organic farming. Many of these principals were born from ideals within the organic community and developed over years and standards developed both nationally and internationally; one such example is the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM ). IFOAM was founded in 1972 and is “the only global non-governmental organization” whose mission is “to unite and assist the organic movement” while “building a common agenda for all stakeholders in the organic sector.” (Kristiansen, P., Taji, A., & Reganold, J., 2006, p. 6) Joel Salatin, an organic farmer at Polyfarms in Virginia and character in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, champions community self reliance through production of local food sources as a solution to world food sustainability, i.e. bio-regionalism. Salatin: “Well, I would much rather use my money to keep my neighborhood

More about The Industrialization of Organic Agriculture

Open Document