Principles (continued)

Natural Pest Management

Whether conventional or organic, all farmers are concerned with pests. They spend a lot of time and resources controlling them. However, in the organic “world view,” pests—whether weeds, insects or diseases—are not simply scourges, but indicators of how far a production system has strayed from the natural ecosystems it should imitate. Certain weeds, for example, tend to predominate when soils are too acidic or too basic; some become a problem when soil structure is poor and conditions become anaerobic; others may be stimulated by excessive fertilizer or manure salts.

Organic proponents also believe that insect pests are attracted to inferior or weak plants—the result of poor crop nutrition. Their logic continues by asserting that pests are naturally repelled by vigorous, well-nourished plants. This belief is often challenged, and significant research remains to be done.

As scientific understanding has grown, insect pest outbreaks are also being understood as imbalances in the whole agroecosystem and how it is managed. In nature, massive pest outbreaks are relatively rare and short-lived due to the presence of natural predators, parasites, and disease agents that quickly knock the pest numbers back down to a moderate level. In farming systems that inadvertently destroy or otherwise fail to support the natural control complex, pest problems are routine and, typically, worsen with time. The farmer becomes increasingly addicted to costly and draconian control methods to produce a crop.

Most organic growers consider pesticides to be a cause of agroecosystem imbalances and employ them as little as possible. When they are used, producers are limited to a certain number of pesticide classes and to certain materials within those classes.

Integrity

Integrity refers to the systems in place and actions undertaken to assure that consumers of organic products get what they pay for. Consumers have a right to expect that the organic food they buy not only be raised by organic methods, but be protected from contamination and from commingling with non-organic products.

While the responsibility for much of this rests with others in the organic marketing chain, many certified organic growers need to incorporate additional practices that work to assure the integrity of their products. Proper record keeping is very important in this regard, though growers are often reluctant to spend much time on it. Among the more important production practices in the field are buffer strips, which reduce chemical drift from neighboring fields and roadsides while serving water and soil conservation objectives.