Organic : An Ostracized Necessity?

Humans naturally crave for economy, productivity and environment. Can organic really satisfy these human wants? A colloquial query that has emerged since the organic farming originated in early 20^th century.       

Changes usually spring out of a havoc. The hydra of famines during 1960s led to the emergence of the concept of green revolution that escalated the use of pesticide, herbicide and synthetic fertilizers. Yes, the charm of green revolution flourished all over. Ecstasy was all around owing to the hasty increase in productivity. Norman E Borlaug (father of green revolution) was even exalted with noble prize for his initiatives.

But a moot point arose when green house gas emission increased rapidly heating the globe more intensely. Soil was degraded both in nutritional and physical quality questioning the future food security, farming staked mostly on non renewable resources, health hazards like cancer increased in number quickly and for each of these impacts green revolution was identified as a major culprit. Again a change was required. Change for sustainability, security and salubrity. Thus organic farming gained the ground.

Organic farming is a holistic concept that encourages the use of environmental friendly inputs as organic fertilizers, biological pest management, green manures while discarding the use of pesticides, fertilizers, GMOs and growth hormones. With the burning issues of climate change, sustainability and security the necessity of organic has turned into need but still the concept is embraced in a sluggish pace.

So why is organic ostracized?

I bring to mind all the products I use in my daily lives and to my despair organic ones occupy a trivial space.  This is the case in everyone’s life. Most of us aren’t aware. Even if we are aware, we can’t afford and if we can afford it’s not available. Thus organic for us has become a mere fancy brand. 

Likewise human by nature are desirous. Why grow on a vast piece of land if we can get the same product or even more in lesser area? This is the main reason that organic is still 0.9% of total farming. Moreover the sustainable practices used in organic farming add more cost in the production process. Thus a high production cost and low productivity naturally heave the market price that automatically affects the consumer’s preference. These reasons make the concept of organic less friendly to both consumers and producers.

Even if a farmer embraces the concept their production is seldom a pure organic. I recently got to read news about the farmers who claim to produce organic products but the actual reality is revealed the next way. They are found create an “organic fraud” and sell their non organic product as a mere brand of organic so that their products can be called as healthy, sustainable and expensive ones. These facts vividly justify how the supply of the organic product still lags the rising demand and organic fraud gets a space in that lag. Such cases of fraud dwindle the organic preference to a further extent.

 Regarding urban areas, even if a farmer desires organic farming they can’t get access to the organic raw materials that are mandatory for organic production. Lack of resources increases their propensity towards conventional farming as synthetic ones are near their hand.

Thus with reining health and environmental concerns, organic now has become an undeniable need. Moreover as intelligent beings, we are obliged to protect and promote the environment while feeding ourselves. So it’s our next duty to pinpoint the problems that hinder the organic production and consumption and mold a suitable solution to it so that our small steps towards organic may aid in creating a lively and secured earth.

 Let’s make organic omnipresent!

Photo courtesy: ilovebutter