1) Biographical info: age, years as a principal operator, education,

relationship to you

2) What comes to mind when you hear the term "Organic farming"?

3) Do you actually know any organic farmers? If so, please share a

few impressions.

4) Have you ever been to an organic farm? If so, please share a few

impressions

5) How frequently (if ever) do you consume organic food? If you

have consumed organic food, please share a few impressions.

6) If a landlord in your area offered you a very reasonable rent to

farm their quarter section of land organically, how would you

respond?

7) Have you ever considered organic farming? Please briefly explain

your answer.

Organic Agriculture Interview Qs – due next Monday (10/22)

What is organic agriculture???

Organic by neglect

or omission

is guaranteed to fail!!

Late 19th century N budget for Illinois (units are 1000 metric tons N / yr)

-523,000 tons of N/yr !

(Dav

id e

t al

., 2

00

1)

This was organic farming by neglect!!!

What did CG Hopkins mean by

permanent agriculture?

First 2 sentences of the book

Do you remember this sentence from Monday?

Does this describe what you have learned in your ag classes at WIU?

Franklin Hiram King (1848-1911)

“ We desired to learn how it is possible, after twenty and perhaps thirty or even forty centuries, for their soils to be made to produce sufficiently for the maintenance of such dense populations.. “ Farmers of Forty Centuries, 1911

FH King , Professor of Soil Physics at UW was dismayed by the rapid degradation of

Midwest soils during the 19th century and traveled to Asia

looking for answers.

Farmers of 40 Centuries: Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan

was the original title.

First edition in 1929

JR Smith was a pioneer in the field of economic geography, an author of many popular elementary school – college level geography text books and a dedicated conservationist and agro-forester.

Sir Albert Howard (1873-1947)

Although many concepts of organic farming predated his work, Sir Albert Howard is commonly regarded as

the father of organic agriculture.

He was raised on a farm in England, and educated at Cambridge University. He served as a mycologist in the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies

(1899-1902), before returning to England to teach agricultural science at South-Eastern Agricultural

College in Wye (1903-1905).

Who was Sir Albert Howard?

He moved to India in 1905 and conducted agricultural research for twenty-six years before permanently returning to England in 1931.

British Indian Empire

INDORE

After returning to England, Sir Albert Howard began to articulate an alternative system of farming based

on his extenisve research and observations of indigenous farming practices.

He gave lectures and wrote widely read books about composting, soil fertility, and relationships between

farming practices and crop, livestock and human health.

He also became an increasingly fierce critic of mainstream agricultural science and practice.

In An Agricultural Testament (1940) Howard

laid out his vision for agriculture based on nature

as a model with great emphasis on a concept that

is central to organic farming--the importance of

utilizing organic waste materials to build and

maintain soil fertility and humus content.

An Agricultural Testament

by Sir Albert Howard

Chapter 1

Introduction

THE maintenance of the fertility of the soil is the

first condition of any permanent system of

agriculture. In the ordinary processes of crop

production fertility is steadily lost: its continuous

restoration by means of manuring and soil

management is therefore imperative.

“In the study of soil fertility, the first step is to bring

under review the various systems of agriculture…

These fall into four main groups:

1) the methods of Nature -- the supreme farmer -- as seen

in the primeval forest, in the prairie, and in the ocean;

2) the agriculture of the nations which have passed away;

3) the practices of the Orient, which have been almost

unaffected by Western science; and

4) the methods in vogue in regions like Europe and North

America to which a large amount of scientific attention has been paid during the last hundred years.”

“Little or no consideration is paid in the literature of agriculture to the means by

which Nature manages land and conducts her water. Nevertheless, these natural methods of

soil management must form the basis of all our studies of soil fertility.

What are the main principles underlying Nature's agriculture?”

“Mixed farming is the rule: plants are always found with animals: many

species of plants and of animals all live together. In the forest, every

form of animal life, from mammals to the simplest invertebrates, occurs. The vegetable kingdom exhibits a similar range: there is never any

attempt at monoculture: mixed crops and mixed farming are the rule.”

“The soil is always protected from the direct action of sun, rain, and wind. In this care of the soil, strict

economy is the watchword: nothing is lost. The whole of the energy of sunlight is made use of by the foliage

of the forest canopy and of the undergrowth.

The leaves also break up the rainfall into fine spray so that it can the more easily be dealt with by the litter of plant and animal remains which provide the last

line of defence of the precious soil.”

According to what Sr. Albert Howard called the Law of Return, all organic waste materials, including

sewage sludge, should be returned to farmland.

Recalling his experiences in India, he described the "Indore" (after a region in India) method of

composting. He prescribed a certain pile size, temperature, moisture, aeration, and a mix of plant,

animal, urine-soaked earth, and ash as a proper composting recipe.

Howard stressed a good mix of composting materials

contained residues from both plants and animals.

Howard was very concerned about the increasing overspecialization in

agricultural science -

“learning more and more about less and less”

He tried to broadly investigate how to grow healthy crops in typical conditions in the field,

rather than the atypical conditions in laboratories and test-plots.

Sir Albert Howard loudly criticized the field plot and statistical methods used at the Rothamsted agricultural experiment station. He thought that these studies were flawed for many reasons e.g.,

continuous cultivation of wheat, use of new seeds from outside sources and free movement of

earthworms between plots.

In Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease (later published as Soil and Health), Sir Albert Howard introduced the idea that disease, whether in plants, animals or humans,

was caused by unhealthy soil and that proper farming techniques would make the soil and those living on it,

healthy.

As evidence he cited his observations that animals fed with crops grown in humus-rich soil were able to rub noses

with diseased animals without becoming infected.

More generally he argued that the correct method for dealing with a pathogen was not to destroy the pathogen but rather to try to learn from it or to "make use of it for

tuning up agricultural practice”.

Due to strict government policies on sale of livestock, disinfection of all persons leaving and entering farms

and the cancellation of large events likely to be attended by

farmers, a potentially economically disastrous epizootic was avoided.

In 2001, a serious outbreak of FMD in Britain resulted in the slaughter of ~ 300,000

cattle, the postponing of the general election for a

month, and the cancellation of many sporting events and

leisure activities.

Sir Albert Howard was certainly rolling in his grave when…

Sir Albert Howard studied the traditional farming methods of India's peasant farmers and the pests and weeds that

conventional agriculturalists were committed to fighting with an ever-widening array of poisons, but which Howard called his

Professors of Agriculture.

He saw pests in the context of Nature's use for them as sensors of soil fertility and indicators of unsuitable crops growing in unsuitable conditions.

Sir Albert Howard recognized the significance of Justus von Liebig's writings on agricultural

chemistry but he was a critic.

He thought that Liebig led agriculture astray when he denounced the humus theory of plant nutrition and promoted the NPK mentality, i.e., the idea that soil fertility could be maintained

entirely through applications of inorganic sources of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Liebig’s prestige and single-minded focus

on chemistry led to diminished

Sir Albert Howard's main concern was that Liebig focused attention on soil chemistry to the neglect of soil biology and physics.

Sir Albert Howard never lost his appreciation for soil organic matter and extolled its profound influence on the health of soils, plants, animals,

and mankind in all of his writings.

appreciation of the value of soil organic matter by scientists

and farmers.

In Sir Albert Howard's long and distinguished career as a scientist, he made many significant discoveries related to

many different facets of agriculture including plant breeding, irrigation, mycorrhizae, soil aeration, fruit tree

cultivation, post-harvest handling of produce, weed management, and diseases of plants and humans. For these widely recognized contributions to agriculture he

was knighted in 1934.

As Howard became increasingly critical of conventional agricultural science, many of his scientific colleagues began to view his ideas on humus, soil fertility, and

disease as exaggerations of otherwise fundamentally sound ideas.

Sir Albert Howard’s hard-line opposition to the

use of artificial fertilizers is often considered extremism but is no more extreme than Liebig's

absolute concept of plants using exclusively inorganic forms of nutrients (which persists in

some modern soil science literature).

Unfortunately Howard's stance on fertilizers contributed to the common but mistaken

impression that organic farming is simply farming without the use of synthetic fertilizers and other

agrichemicals.

In 1946 (one year before his death), Sir Albert Howard acted out his role of agricultural contrarian most explosively in a book titled The War in the Soil. This book opens with a powerful condemnation: The war in the soil is the result of a conflict between the birthright of humanity--fresh food from fertile soil--and the profits of a section of Big Business in the shape of the manufacturers of artificial fertilizers and their satellite companies who produce poison sprays to protect crops from pests and who prepare the various remedies for the diseases of livestock and mankind.

Although Howard was a passionate advocate of what

is now known as organic farming, he never used the term organic to describe the system of agriculture

that he promoted.

Lord Walter Northbourne, a British agronomist, academic (long time Provost of Provost of the

agricultural college of London University), elite athlete (silver medal in rowing at the 1920 Olympics),

translator, and author of books about agriculture and comparative religion, was the first person to use the

word organic to describe a method of farming.

In 1940, Northbourne introduced his concept of the ideal farm as an

organic whole (i.e. having a complex

interrelationship of parts/organs, similar

to that in living things) in a book titled, Look

to the Land.

In Look to the Land, Northbourne wrote that “chemical farming is regulated mainly according to

the combined recommendations of the farm economist, with his calculating machines and ledgers,

and the chemist”.

He warned that farming should not be “treated as a mixture of chemistry and cost accountancy, nor can it

be pulled into conformity with the requirements of modern business, in which speed, cheapness, and

standardizing count most. Nature will not be driven. If you try, she hits back slowly, but very hard”.

Within Northbourne’s concept of organic farming, the farmer’s role is to coordinate the integrated

components of a farm – so that resource cycling and self-regulating processes are optimized.

It is important to distinguish this concept of organic from the common misunderstanding that organic (in context of organic farming) refers only to the carbon

based chemistry or biological origin of the soil amendments commonly used in organic farming.

When J.I. Rodale, a successful American businessman read

An Agricultural Testament, he was so moved by

Howard’s ideas (he described the experience as like being hit by a "ton of bricks“) that

he almost immediately purchased a farm near

Allentown, PA and began experimenting with

composting and organic farming techniques.

J.I.Rodale (1898-1971)

Jerome Irving Rodale was born in New York City in 1898, the son of a grocer, and thus was connected

to the food industry but had little to no direct connection to agriculture while growing up.

He was a very successful entrepreneur who started

out manufacturing electrical switches but eventually founded a publishing empire (Rodale Inc. launched in 1930), launched several very successful magazines (e.g., Organic Gardening, Prevention),

and published many books (including some he authored) on agriculture, human health and many

other topics.

In 1942, JI Rodale began publishing Organic Farming and Gardening magazine with Sir Albert

Howard serving as the associate editor.

In 1945, JI Rodale's book Pay Dirt, with an introduction by Sir Albert Howard, introduced

organic farming concepts to a wide audience. For approximately the next quarter century, JI Rodale promoted organic concepts with missionary zeal

and probably did more than anyone else to increase awareness and interest in organic gardening and

farming in the US.

Both Sir Albert Howard and JI Rodale saw the conflict between organic and mainstream agriculture as a

struggle between two different visions of what agriculture should become as they engaged in a

war of words with the agricultural establishment.

The circulation of Organic Gardening magazine increased

from 260,000 in 1960 to 1,300,000 in 1980 when it was

the most widely read gardening publication in the world.

Many factors, such as the back-

to-the-land movement, the growing environmental

movement, and the anti-establishment social revolution,

were responsible for the increasing popularity of Rodale

Press publications.

These folks probably subscribed to Organic Farming and Gardening

magazine

This is not me!

In addition to writing/publishing magazines and books about gardening and farming, JI Rodale also launched a

Wellness revolution

In 1950, he founded Prevention magazine to teach readers how to prevent disease through a healthy

lifestyle and diet versus just treating the symptoms of disease.

He also wrote books promoting the healthful effects of

exercise and fruit and vegetable rich diets (e.g., How to Eat for a Healthy Heart).

JI Rodale engaged in legal battles with the FTC for almost two decades, at times putting his entire

personal net worth at risk. Over the years, the FTC, fearing that they would lose their case on

constitutional grounds, attempted to settle with JI Rodale. But despite financial hardship, JI Rodale refused to back down unless the FTC agreed to

acknowledge that the First Amendment prohibited them from regulating books and printed material.

In 1954, the Federal Trade Commission ordered JI Rodale to stop advertising and selling health

books, claiming that the medical advice given in his books was unsubstantiated.

In the later years of the case, JI Rodale's lawyers introduced new testimony from some of the same

leading medical experts that the government originally used at the initial FTC hearings almost 20

years earlier.

One by one, the experts refuted their original testimony, claiming they "didn't know back then"

and admitted that many of JI Rodale's original claims had since become established medical

facts.

In 1971, while describing his legal problems with the federal government on the set of a popular TV show, J. I. Rodale suddenly died.

Until he actually stopped breathing and turned blue, everyone watching the taping

of The Dick Cavett Show thought Rodale was faking a heart attack in order to make a

point about his troubles with the FTC.

Just days before his death, J.I Rodale spoke before an audience in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The contrarian

leader of the organic movement boasted to his followers,

“My friends, my time has come. Years ago they heaped violence and poured ridicule on my head. I was called a cultist and acrackpot…but now I am suddenly becoming

a prophet here on earth, a prophet with profits.”

Rodale’s talents as entrepreneur and passionate spokesman lifted him from a childhood of immigrant

poverty to the head of the multi-billion dollar publishing company with major influence on public opinion

worldwide.

Today Prevention magazine has 12 million

readers, and Rodale Press is the largest

health-oriented publisher in the world, publishing

~100 new wellness titles each year that sell a combined 20 million

copies.

JI Rodale’s publications gave voice to the ideas of many other advocates for alternative health and farming practices

Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925)

In the early 1920s, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, gave a series of

lectures on the Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture which inspired the development of Biodynamic agriculture.

Biodynamic agriculture has much in

common with other organic systems, such as emphasizing the production and use of

compost and excluding the use of synthetic inputs.

Methods unique to Biodynamics include the

use of fermented herbal and mineral preparations as compost additives and field

sprays and the use of an astrological planting calendar.

Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1899–1961) was born in Germany and worked closely with Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. In 1928, he

became the director of a biodynamic research farm in Holland and visited the

U.S. several times during the 1930s giving lectures on biodynamic agriculture.

In 1940, he immigrated to the U.S. and

provided leadership for several biodynamic farms where he pioneered

the testing and documentation of biodynamic practices. He helped establish

the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association in Kimberton, PA where he developed a friendship with JI Rodale.

Lady Eve Balfour (1899-1990) is best known as the founder of The Soil

Association, Britain's leading organic food and farming organization. The Soil Association was born in 1946, following publication of Lady Eve Balfour's bestselling book about

organic agriculture, The Living Soil (Faber & Faber 1943).

In 1939, she launched the Haughley Experiment on her farm in Suffolk, England. It was the first scientific,

side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming and was

maintained for 33 years.

.

Three side-by-side units of land were established, each large enough to operate a full farm rotation,

so that the food-chains involved — soil–plant–animal and back to the soil — could be studied as

they functioned through successive rotational cycles, involving many generations of plants and

animals, in order that interdependences between soil, plant and animal, and also any cumulative

effects could develop.

The Haughley Experiment

One unit was a stockless arable farm — the other two were both ley farms (temporary pasture alternating with arable crops) following the same rotation. Each carried a herd of dairy cows, a flock of poultry and a

small flock of sheep.

All livestock was fed exclusively on the produce of its own unit, replacements were home bred and cereal and pulse crops raised from home-grown seed. All wastes of crops and stock were returned only to its

own unit. Only livestock products and surplus animals were sold off the farm. All crops were fed to the

animals.

On one of the ley units called the Mixed Section supplementary chemical fertilizers

were used, as well as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides when thought necessary.

On the other ley unit, called the Organic

Section, no chemicals were used. It was thus entirely dependent on its own biological

fertility. As nearly as possible a closed cycle was maintained so that a minimum of unknown factors would be introduced into the food

chain.

Ecology of Earthworms under the ‘Haughley Experiment’ Organic and Conventional Management Regimes - R. J. Blakemore

Significant differences in earthworm populations and soil properties were found in three sections of a farm at Haughley in Suffolk that, since 1939, had either an organic, a mixed conventional, or a stockless intensive arable regime. Compared with the mean earthworm population of a 1,000 year old permanent pasture of 424 per m2, the organic field had 179 per m2, the mixed field 98 per m2 and the stockless field 100 per m2.

Soil analyses showed the organic soil had higher moisture, organic C, and mineral N, P, K, and S compared with soil from the stockless field. The organic soil also had lower bulk density and good crumb structure whereas the stockless soil was cloddy and subject to puddling. The properties of the mixed field soil were intermediate to the others.

Choice chambers offering the three field soils, with and without organic amendments, showed an earthworm preference for the organic soil (total 96 worms) compared to the mixed and stockless soils (75 and 73 worms).

When the Haughley experiment was terminated, the results were not as clear as had been hoped

(hardly surprising as we still have a poor understanding of the relationships between soil,

crop and animal health), however the experiment clearly contributed to understanding of how the best of old and new traditions in land husbandry

could be combined and paved the way for the first organic standards.

Sir Robert McCarrison (1878 – 1960) was a pioneering physician and nutrionist who is credited with being the first scientist to experimentally demonstrate the effect of dietary deficiencies upon animal tissues and organs. He also carried out human experiments aimed at identifying the cause of goitre, and included himself as one of the experimental subjects. At age 23, he went to India, where he spent 30

He concluded that many common diseases increasingly prevalent in industrial societies were caused by diets made defective by extensive food processing, and the use of chemical additives. He deplored the universal consumption in Britain and America of refined white flour and the substitution of canned, preserved and artificially sweetened products for fresh natural food.

years investigating relationships between nutrition and contrasting disease patterns on the Indian subcontinent.

McCarrison's work was widely published in medical journals. He was honored for

his discoveries, but his recommendations were largely ignored by government and the medical profession at a time when medical thought was focused on the treatment of disease rather than the

prevention of disease and the promotion of health.

McCarrison studied the inhabitants of the Hunza valley of Northern India and wrote:

JI Rodale brought McCarrison’s research on the Hunzas to a popular audience

Weston A. Price, DDS (1870–1948) was a dentist and nutritionist. He was the

chairman of the Research Section of the American Dental Association from 1914–1923, but was later marginalized by the

American Dental Association for his outspoken views.

In 1939, Price published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a book that details a series of ethnographic nutritional studies

performed by Price across diverse cultures.

In his studies, Price found that many of the ailments of modern civilization (headaches, dental cavities,

impacted molars, tooth crowding, allergies, heart disease, asthma, and degenerative diseases such as

tuberculosis and cancer) were not present in cultures sustained by indigenous diets.

Sadly, within a single generation these same cultures experienced all the above listed ailments when they adopted Western foods in their diet: refined sugars, refined flours, canned goods, etc.

Louis Bromfield working on another book

In 1939, after living in France for over 10 years, Louis Bromfield returned to the US and purchased Malabar Farm, near Mansfield, OH. Bromfield dedicated the rest of his life to agriculture and sought to create a farm that promoted soil conservation but also continued to write books and articles. His later books, including Pleasant Valley, focused on soil conservation and other farming issues. He continued to socialize with prominent artists, including Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart who were married at Malabar Farm in 1945.

Louis Bromfield (1896 – 1956) was an American author and conservationist who gained international recognition for his writing (30 best-sellers, several movies and a Pulitzer Prize) and for promoting innovative ecologically oriented farming practices.

Dr. William Albrecht

1886-1974

William Albrecht was a leading soil scientist who served as the head of

the Agronomy Dept at the U of Missouri and as the president of the

Soil Science Society of America.

In his latter years, he wrote extensively about the relationship

between soil fertility and animal and human health. He felt that animal

health (and ultimately human health) was related to soil fertility and that proper management of soils would

solve most crop, livestock and human disease problems.

”Acres U.S.A.was founded on the belief that the world did not begin in 1948, when the research and

development bonanza of World War II combined with a flood of special interest money to create a new kind

of agriculture, based on petrochemical inputs. Nor did the world of scientific farming, attuned to nature, stop dead in its tracks. In fact, much of the best work

in sustainable technology was just beginning. Readers of Acres U.S.A.reap the harvest of

courageous innovators who sidestepped the Ag Establishment for decades.”

From the Acres website

In the early 1940s, Dr. Fukuoka quit his job as a soil

microbiologist, returned to his family's farm in southern Japan,

and devoted the next 60 years to developing natural no-till

methods of growing citrus, rice and other crops. Americans

became familiar with Fukuoka through articles in Rodale publications and his book

The One-Straw Revolution.

Prior to the 1970s, mainstream agricultural scientists mostly ignored organic farming and gardening but agricultural

colleges and experiment stations were increasingly besieged with letters of inquiry from the public and it became

impossible to ignore the organic movement.

One of the first attempts to respond to the organic advocates was undertaken by Dr. Firman E. Bear, a prominent soil

chemist from Rutgers University, who in a 1947 article titled Facts...and Fancies About Fertilizer referred to Sir Albert

Howard, E.B. Balfour, J.I. Rodale, and E.H. Faulkner as "gloomy prophets".

Other articles critical of the organic movement were published during this period of polarization such as

The Great Organic Gardening Myth.

Shortly after J.I. Rodale died , his son Robert (Bob) Rodale purchased a 333-acre farm near Kutztown, PA (that later became the Rodale Institute). He began hiring scientists with strong credentials and launched an era of

organic research.

Initiated in 1981, The Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial® (FST) is the longest-running side-by-side

comparison of organic and conventional farming systems in the US, and one of the oldest in the world.

What began as a 5-year controlled study of what a

typical American grain farmer would go through to give up chemical fertilizers and pesticides has matured into a complex, interdisciplinary, collaborative project that will

be continued indefinitely.

The FST compares three cropping systems: a conventional BMP system, a livestock-based organic

system, and a legume-based organic system.

Key FST research results after 25 years

1) higher soil carbon and nitrogen levels in the organic systems

2) comparable crop yields for organic and conventional systems in years of average precipitation, and greater for organic

systems in drought years

3) fossil energy inputs for organic systems were over 30% lower

4) labor inputs in organic systems averaged ~15% higher

5) net economic return for organic systems was equal or higher

Under the direction of Secretary of Agriculture Robert Bergland (1977-81) the USDA began its

first survey of the organic farming sector.

In 1980, the USDA published the Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming for the express purpose of "increasing communication

between organic farmers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture”.

In 1981, the American Society of Agronomy held a Symposium on Organic Farming to examine the question "Can organic

farming contribute to a more sustainable

agriculture...?"

They concluded: "The most probable answer is

that it most definitely can...”

Powerful testimony by Bob Rodale as well as many

organic farmers and scientists convinced the U.S.

Congress to include funds for organic agriculture in

the 1985 Farm Bill. This was the beginning of an ongoing

process of scientific validation and refinement of organic agriculture by research and education

programs.

Bob Rodale was concerned about the negative baggage that

the term ORGANIC had accumulated and

preferred the term Regenerative agriculture.

Most farmers are using methods that do not allow production flexibility. American agriculture of the conventional type "works" only when the throttle governing energy and input flows is pulled all the way out. Farmers lack the option of switching-either permanently or temporarily-to an alternate system that performs well when conventional production is not profitable.

Paraphrased Bob Rodale quote that caught my attention back in the 80s

Robert Rodale was killed in a traffic accident in Moscow in

1990 while launching a Russian language version of

NEW FARM magazine.

Bob Rodale launched a magazine titled NEW FARM in 1979 that showcased innovative farming practices that were ecologically

oriented but not necessarily organic.

The period from 1979 to 1990 was an era of growing recognition of organic food and

farming at a national level in the United States.

With growing consumer interest, came commercial interest in establishing standards

for organically produced foods.

As a sign of the new times, in 1979, California passed the first legal standard for organic

production in the United States.

This new attention and recognition led to a backlash in 1981 from the incoming Reagan administration which tried unsuccessfully to end distribution of the USDA Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming.

The Reagan administration abolished the recently

established position of Organic Resources Coordinator, held by Garth Youngberg, who had been a member of

the USDA Study Team for Organic Farming.

Former Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, commented that millions would starve if all farmers adopted

organic methods.

The Federal Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 set out to: 1)Establish national standards governing the

marketing of organically produced products 2)Assure consumers that organically produced

products meet a consistent standard; 3)Facilitate interstate commerce in both fresh

and processed organic foods. .

Full development of USDA Organic standards took more than a decade. Initially, the

proposed standards did not prohibit the use of sewage sludge, food irradiation and

genetically modified organisms (GMOs). These allowances resulted in enormous

public outcry which eventually led to their removal from the final rules.

The USDA Certified Organic label was

introduced on October 21, 2002.

Organic certification requirements

Detailed farm plan showing all fields/buffers

Documentation of all inputs

Documentation that equipment not solely used for organic has been cleaned properly

On-farm inspection

3 year transition

During the past 20 years, the market demand for organically

produced food in the US has increased by about 20 percent

annually.

Organic product sales in the US currently exceed $20 billion.

CA = California

~ 0.1% of IL farmland

~ $500 million of organic foods purchased in IL

each year

< 5% from IL farms :-<