Is Organic Farming harmful to the environment?

Answer 1

In general the answer to your question is no. Organic farming is better for the environment than standard farming. Organic farming, however, can be bad for the environment if not done properly. Use of barnyard manure if excessive or applied wrong can cause runoff into running or standing water and causes problems as nitrates and phosphates just like chemical fertilizers. Nitrates as well as bacteria can also find their way into ground water.

Answer 2

To some degree all farming is bad for the environment, because it cuts into habitats, migration routes, ranges and breeding populations. It also uses up land that might otherwise be forest and soak up carbon.

However, it is better than a traditional farm that uses chemicals that tend to stay in the environment for a very long time. Organic farms tend to be small scale and cater to local markets, which it good. Also, the genetic diversity and, hence, risk of devastating crop loss tends to be lower.

Prices of organic produce tend to be a little more, so there are social impacts as well, some good some bad. I don't look for organic foods, I don't think it's worth it. However, I wouldn't think someone who did was making a mistake.

Answer 3

A little.

Organic farming is a form of agriculture which excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators, livestock feed additives, and genetically modified organisms. As far as possible, organic farmers rely on crop rotation, integrated pest management, crop residue, compost and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pests.

Organic agricultural methods are internationally regulated and legally enforced by many nations, based in large part on the standards set by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, an international umbrella organization for organic organizations. Approximately 31 million hectares (75 million acres) worldwide are now grown organically.[1]

The overarching goal of organic farming is defined as follows:

"The role of organic agriculture, whether in farming, processing, distribution, or consumption, is to sustain and enhance the health of ecosystems and organisms from the smallest in the soil to human beings."

Answer 4

Hello,
If it is true organic farming I dont think it is harmful.
Some companies put "Organic" on there product when in actuality it is not truly organic, but it does fit within the government guidelines for organic.
Good old government has to put there hands in everything....

Answer 5

Organic farming may be described as farming that uses mechanical rather than chemical means of weed control. Other aspects too, but the main way that organic farming hurts the environment is by exposing the earth to the rain and wind.

Organic farming does not have to use multiple-pass tillage to control weeds. But if one farms organically and DOES use multi-pass tillage to control weeds, and possibly even to use a black earth method of controlling insects like grasshoppers, junebugs, then yes, organic farming can harm the environment both by loss of soil, and by using large volumes of fossil fuel.

If Organic farming is coupled with removal of all stover for bio-fuels, a really dumb combination, the soil will rapidly deteriorate, and the removed stover will leave its plant nutrients at the processing plant.

Organic farming and minimum tillage can coexist, but not in a combination with crop rotation into sod (pasture or hay). Where organic farming is based on a permaculture model the extent of tillage required can be handled with hoe and shovel.
Where we are more properly describing organic ranching, rather than farming, of course we can have zero-tillage.

Zero tillage for cropped land may be short lived. If plants are not controlled with herbicides and manage to put down seeds, No till still appears to be working, but anything that disturbs the soil is likely to trigger growth of those seeds, evan after the herbicides have been applied. With herbicide resistance we are seeing many fields becoming progressivly more choked with weeds until the farmer reverts to a combination of tillage and herbicide.

Some organic farmers in dry-land cropping will use a rod weeder as their only tillage, and so leave almost all the vegetation on top of the soil. This does tend to break down when summerfallowing operations are used. Use of the rod weeder with a herbicide gets more complete weed control with more of the plant matter left on top.

In my area soil is rarely dry enough for long enough to plan to use rod weeder control. Herbicides plus a lot of hoeing is our cost effective strategy. The organic strategy is early light tillage to get weeds growing and plow down weeds at planting time. This gives crops a head start, but not weed control. Some form of inter-row tillage or hand pulling/hoeing is needed if the land has had seeds dropped in ny time over decades past.

IIf everything is done perfectly neither organic nor herbicied-enabled farming will do great harm. If pigs could fly could flies pig?

Answer 6

NO!!!
The organic matter does not produce any type of waste.
Ever increasing attention is being paid to the environmental impact of intensive agricultural practices, and in this context organic farming is gaining recognition as a relatively friendly production system. In general, the risk of harmful environmental effects is lower with organic than with conventional farming methods, though not necessarily so. This review examines organic farming in the light of European conditions with special regard to recent research findings from Denmark. It specifies the environmental problems caused by modern farming practices and discusses appropriate indicators for assessing their impact. A driving force-state-response (DSR) framework is employed to organise and understand the processes and mechanisms that lie behind the impact of agriculture on nature and the environment. Important groups of environmental indicators are selected that characterise (a) the aquatic environment (nitrate and phosphorus leaching), (b) the soil (organic matter, biology and structure), (c) the ecosystem (arable land, semi-cultivated areas, small biotopes and landscape), and (d) resource usage and balances (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and energy use).

The paper also reviews several empirical studies. With regard to soil biology, organic farming is usually associated with a significantly higher level of biological activity (bacteria (Monera), fungi (Mycota), springtails (Collembola), mites (Arachnida), earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris)), due to its versatile crop rotations, reduced applications of nutrients, and the ban on pesticides. In most cases there is also a lower surplus of nutrients and less leaching with organic than with conventional farming. However, poor management (e.g., the ploughing of grass and legumes (Fabates) at the wrong time of year with no subsequent crops to capture the mineralised nitrogen), low self-sufficiency in feed, and problems with certain production systems (such as those involved in organic pig farming, i.e., grazing sows, low crop yields), can lead to a high level of leaching in some organic systems. Organic farming is faced with a need to expand and develop in line with increasing demands for organic food and growing environmental concerns. This requires closer attention to the goals, values and principles on which organic practices are based, and more research into the influence of organic farming on different aspects of the environment.

Answer 7

One thing is obvious, it's not possible to use no-till planting with an organic system. That means tillage before planting is going to be necessary as well as cultivation after planting. Any practice that leaves the soil bare and exposed is going to increased soil erosion, plain and simple.

In addition, yields are usually less with an organic system than a conventional one. Reduced yields means less plant residue which means increased soil erosion.

Soil erosion doesn't just carry away soil, it carries away the nutrients attached to the soil particle. More erosion means more nutrients in the water system as well as more nutrients needed to maintain yields on the cropped land.

Harmful? Not as long as proper precautions are taken.

Answer 8

as a matter of fact, organic farming is the only natural farming. but our materialistic lifestyle has impacted so much in environment that it might take centuries before we realize that we have lost our war against nature.

Answer 9

Organic agriculture is not harmfull for the environment in any way, although it is inefficient. Meaning that it cant supply the amounts of food required to feed today-s global population.

Answer 10

On a small scale, no. On a large scale, not that I know of. I have never heard of any studies that indicate this. Now maybe as you increase the scale of operation it gets to a point to where it starts to be harmful but like I said I have never heard of anything that suggests this.