What is Organic Farming?

                                           

    it took hundreds of thousands of years

for the human population to reach 1

billion and in less than 200

 years that

has increased to nearly 7.5 billion

people

many scientists calculate the

sustainable population to be about 2

billion people which means we need to

manage our resources and food production

very carefully to cater to the extra 5.5

billion people as populations have grown

farming practices have become more

intensified to maximize crop yields and

ensure that we can feed our ever-growing

population fertilisers and pesticides

are used on crops and animals may be

kept inside in more densely packed sheds

to maximize milk yields or egg

production or speed up the time needed

for the animal to be ready to be sent to

the market for meat to learn more about

conventional farming watch our video on

modern agriculture in this video we are

going to look at an alternative to

conventional farming organic farming

we're going to see what it is in theory

and the pros and cons of this method in

relation to other modern agricultural

methods organic farming currently

accounts for about 1% of agricultural

land worldwide it focuses on

sustainability and is thought to have

less detrimental effects on the

environment than conventional farming

this is led to it being proposed as an

alternative to conventional agriculture

for helping to overcome the climate

change crisis we are currently

experiencing but the debate continues as

it is not a perfect solution in theory

organic farming should not use chemical

fertilizers herbicides and pesticides or

feed additives for livestock

it requires the follower to use more

natural alternatives this results in

lower yields but the farmer can sell

their product at a higher price because

consumers believe the product is of a

higher quality instead of fertilizers

manure is used this recycles waste and

improves the soil structure however it

is smelly and more difficult to apply

than chemical fertilizers and also means

the farmer has less control over the

mineral content they are putting into

their soil crop rotation is used to

reduce diseases building up in the soils

and to strengthen the soil composition

certain crops such as the legume family

so peas and beans fix nitrogen from the

air and increase the nitrates in the

soil

this makes this were much more fertile

and so farmers rotate legumes with their

other crops growing multiple crops is

however less efficient and produces

lower yields than specializing in one or

fewer crops instead of using herbicides

weeding is the preferred organic farming

technique this is of course much more

environmentally friendly because it is

chemical free but it is very labor

intensive although this does mean more

jobs available which is a great thing

organic farming is thought to maintain

the biodiversity better than

conventional farming because fewer

chemicals are used there are more

bumblebees and insects in the area

because pesticides haven't been used

weeds and non crop plants can grow as

herbicides aren't used biodiversity

benefits the food chain across all

levels from the plants up to the foxes

these are the theories of organic

farming and is how we farmed for 100

thousand years before the Industrial

Revolution it is generally thought that

organic farming is much better for

biodiversity and also produces a

healthier product because less chemicals

are used on it in the second video on

organic farming we will look at some of

the problems of organic farming and the

reality of what it means to be an

organic farm

you