Organic food has long since made its way into the mainstream of society. There is hardly a food product that isn't also available in organic quality. It starts with convenience products and ends with organic gummy bears. They all carry an organic seal. Some bear the EU organic logo, others the logos of the associations they belong to, and still others use the brand marks of the companies that carry out organic certification checks. A few have also struck a pact with AMA. But what they all have in common is that they have chosen a form of farming that is labour-intensive, less productive in yield — and yet far more future-proof than conventional agriculture.
This is (not yet) the place to go into the stark differences between organic and chemical farming. In organic farming, we use no synthetic chemical crop protection agents — meaning no synthetic pesticides, insecticides, herbicides or fungicides. Instead, we work with alternative, organic sprays. The approved inputs catalogue provides organic farmers with a precise list of permitted preparations. On top of that, compost, rock dusts, teas and plant extracts are used. Some pests are kept in check by organic farmers who intervene in their love lives. Pheromone traps release alluring scents at precisely the moment when no potential mates are anywhere to be found. In scientific terms, this disrupts the reproductive cycle. It's admittedly a little unkind to the male insects, but it does nature as a whole a great service — after all, it is systemic insecticides that cause one bee colony after another to collapse and fail to survive the chemical farmers' crop-protection onslaughts.
Turning the Organic Label Argument on Its Head
What troubles us deeply — given these straightforward connections — is the fact that it is we, the organic farmers, who are required to label (and highlight) our products. We think the reverse approach would make far more sense, and it is one well worth striving for: namely, that the part of agriculture responsible for putting agrochemicals into circulation should be required to place a corresponding notice on the products made that way. The organic label as a quality mark would remain — after all, we wear it with pride (right there on our bottles). But warning labels should appear on all other products. Mandatory. No ifs, no buts.
