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| What Is Organic Farming?
Organic farming is the approach to agriculture where integrated, humane, and environmentally and economically sustainable production systems are employed throughout. Locally or farm-produced renewable resources are relied upon extensively and, in a best-case scenario, exclusively. Self-regulating ecological and biological processes and interactions are managed to give appropriate returns to both the farmer and the resources used. In a nutshell, organic farming relies on cyclical ecosystem management rather than external influences and inputs.
At the heart of organic farming is its objective of sustainability. To practice sustainability means not only to conserve non-renewable resources such as soil, energy and minerals, but to address issues of social and economic stability and renewability. In keeping with Mabou Ridge Centre's holistic philosophy (favouring wholeness over reductionism), its farm is an organism in which all of its parts – the trees, soil, minerals, organic matter, plants, humans, animals – interact to create a stable whole.
Some of the objectives include:
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Encouraging and protecting the long term fertility of the soils by maintaining organic matter levels. |
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Encouraging soil biological activity, and environmentally sound mechanical intervention. |
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Obtaining and maintaining nitrogen self-sufficiency through crop rotation, as well as recycling of organic materials including crop compost and livestock manures. |
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Providing crop nutrients which are made available to the plant by the action of soil's micro-organisms. |
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Maintaining weed, disease and pest control by relying primarily on crop rotations, complementary planting, organic manure, and natural predators. |
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Giving careful and responsible consideration to the impact of production systems on the surrounding (and global) environment, and to the conservation of local wildlife and natural habitats. |
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Giving full attention to the management of livestock, their behavioural needs, their evolutionary changes, and animal welfare issues including nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing. |
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