ORGANIC VEGETABLE PRODUCTION

A Complete Guide

Gareth Davies

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781847974402
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Agricultura

Organic Vegetable Production provides an invaluable, practical guide to the production of organic vegetables across a range of organic farming systems in temperate areas. The book covers all aspects of production, including crop choice, fertility building and weed, pest and disease management within a framework of rotation design and business planning. The specific needs of a range of commonly grown vegetable crops are discussed in detail. The authors consider that knowledge-gathering, marketing and financial management are integral parts of organic vegetable production and these subjects are examined in depth. Speciality topics as protected cropping and storage are covered. The book highlights the technical and economic consequences of converting from conventional to organic production and the challenges that can arise.

Chapter 1

Organic Principles for Growing Vegetables

Organic agriculture is a system of food production that acknowledges the importance of biodiversity, soil biological activity and biological cycles. It aims to enhance and develop these as an integral part of the food-production system. Organic systems also recognize that human health is linked to the type and quality of the food that people eat and that this, in turn, can be directly linked to the health of plants and animals that provide this food and, ultimately, to the well-being of the soil on which all agricultural production depends. Organic agriculture also regards animal welfare and human social well-being as integral to agricultural production. The many, diverse, organic farming systems share similar practices or characteristics that stem from this underlying viewpoint. More recently, these perspectives are increasingly being set out as ‘organic principles’ or even legal requirements. The principles are briefly described below in order to provide the framework for understanding many of the practices for organic vegetable-production described in the subsequent chapters.

PRINCIPLES FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

The general principles and ideas underlying organic agriculture are now, at least superficially, well known. In restating these principles, we have largely followed those developed by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). These are not intended to be a proscriptive recipe for organic farming but a flexible set of principles that can be adapted to local circumstances. IFOAM does not prioritize any of the principles and recognizes that they are all important. According to IFOAM, the principles are that organic agriculture should:

• produce sufficient quantities of high-quality food, fibre and other products

• work compatibly with natural cycles and living systems through the soil, plants and animals in the entire production system

• recognize the wider social and ecological impact of and within the organic production and processing system

• maintain and increase long-term fertility and biological activity of soils using locally adapted cultural, biological and mechanical methods – as opposed to relying on inputs

• maintain and encourage agricultural and natural biodiversity of the farm and its surroundings through the use of sustainable production systems and the protection of plant and wildlife habitats

• maintain and conserve genetic diversity through attention to on-farm management of genetic resources

• promote the responsible use and conservation of water and all life therein

• use, as far as possible, renewable resources in production and processing systems and avoid pollution and waste

• foster local and regional production and distribution

• create a harmonious balance between crop production and animal husbandry

• provide living conditions that allow animals to express the basic aspects of their innate behaviour

• utilize biodegradable, recyclable and recycled packaging materials

• provide everyone involved in organic farming and processing with a quality of life that satisfies their basic needs, within a safe, secure and healthy working environment

• support the establishment of an entire production, processing and production chain that is both socially just and ecologically responsible

• recognize the importance of, and protect and learn from, indigenous knowledge and traditional farming systems.

More recently IFOAM has attempted to summarize these principals as:

• the principle of health: organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal and human as one and indivisible

• the ecological principle: organic agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, and emulate and help sustain them

• the principle of fairness: organic agriculture should be built upon relationships that ensure fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities

• the principle of care: agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment.

The principles flow from an underlying world-view of what agriculture can and should set out to achieve. In a sense, these could be said to be ‘ideals’. It is from these ideals that sets of organic standards, against which individual farm systems can be compared, have been drawn up, which has led to the concept of certified organic farming systems.

CERTIFICATION OF ORGANIC FARMING SYSTEMS

Certification of organic farming systems has arisen as a means of evaluating working practices of farmers and processors, to assess whether they are applying and adhering to organic standards – hence following organic principles – in their production systems. Generally, the aim is to certify the production system rather than the end product, although, in the eyes of the consumer at the end of a long food-chain, this is often overlooked. Certification is, therefore, a means of ensuring the integrity of organic products and has subsequently become subject to legal codification (see below). Consumers are assured that certified organic produce has been produced, stored, processed, handled and marketed in accordance with organic standards, or technical specifications, which have been certified as organic by a recognized body.

In the UK and across Europe, there are numerous organic certification bodies. These interpret and codify organic principles in ‘organic standards’. Obviously there will be slight differences, even within countries, in the detail of the standards as interpreted by each certification body. As a minimum, they do have to conform to EU and national laws (see below) for organic production and processing. In the UK, organic certification bodies conform to the Advisory Committee on Organic Standards (ACOS) standards, which are based on the EU law (regulation 2092/91 and amendments), and, in turn, they are approved by ACOS as certification bodies. ACOS is a non-executive non-departmental public body within the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which advises ministers on matters related to organic standards. It was preceded by the United Kingdom Register of Organic Food Standards (UKROFS).

Legal Requirements

In 1993, EC Council Regulation 2092/91 became effective across the EU and, since that time, organic food production has been legally regulated in the EU. Regulation 2092/91 sets out the inputs and practices that may be used in organic farming and growing, and defines the inspection system that must be put in place to ensure this. This regulation also applies to processing, processing aids and ingredients in organic foods. Therefore, all foods sold as organic must originate from growers, processors and importers who are registered with an approved certification body and subject to regular inspection. Regulation 2092/91 has formed the basis for UK organic standards, initially in the form of UKROFS standards. These have been replaced by the Compendium of UK Organic Standards.

Practical Requirements

All organic producers have to be registered with a certifying body, and be ‘certified’ in order to sell their produce as organic. The government, through the government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), oversees an increasing number of these inspection or certification bodies (thirteen as of December 2004). Each inspection body has its own set of organic standards that have to conform to the EU law, which, in turn, sets the legal standards. Some certification bodies may operate standards that are ‘stricter’ than this official or legal minimum, but these differences are generally more pronounced in the livestock sections of the standards than in the horticulture sector.

The process of certification involves some form of farm visit by inspectors of the certifying body, in which the production system is visually inspected, together with a review of the business practice and accounts, normally on an annual basis. It is the role of the inspection body to ensure that growers follow the set standards, so that consumers can have confidence in the authenticity of organic food. Testing of the soil or produce is not generally part of the process, though the certifying body can employ it if a problem is suspected. Detailed and accurate record-keeping is absolutely fundamental to the operation and inspection of organic systems.

Once certified, growers have the right to use the certifying agency’s label. This enables the consumer to find out under what conditions they can expect their food to have been produced by consulting the certifier’s standards.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIC FARMING SYSTEMS

Whilst there might seem to be a growing body of rules and regulations surrounding organic agriculture, the principles and the practice work to ensure that certified organic farming systems share certain characteristics. We have described these briefly below, so as not to loose sight of what features of organic systems are important for all stakeholders, be they farmers, processors or consumers.

Organic farming systems are generally working towards increasing biodiversity. Biodiversity aids production through many biological services, such as pollination, natural pest-control and erosion control. Organic farmers are generally interested in building biodiversity into their farming systems and consumers desire the type of food and the landscapes this creates. Elements in farming systems that enhance biodiversity include rotations, intercropping and sensitive habitat-management and many of these are described in this book.

Organic farming systems are working towards integrating economic, environmental and social sustainability into their farm systems. Sustainability recognizes that there are limits to growth in a finite ecosystem and that the goal of food-production systems should be to develop ecological and social resources that maintain or enhance our future ability to produce food, either for future generations or ourselves. This naturally means that organic farmers should be working towards reducing external inputs, be it fuel or feedstuff, into their farm systems and looking to produce all resources within the farm boundaries or near locality.

Organic farming systems generally concentrate on maintaining a healthy and fertile soil, capable of supplying adequate and natural nutrition to crop plants. This has many beneficial effects throughout the whole farm system and many of the techniques for maintaining soil fertility are alluded to in later chapters. Many organic proponents, including the founders of the modern organic movement like Eve Balfour, go further and make a link between a biologically healthy soil, the production of wholesome food and, ultimately, human health.

Organic farming systems rely on natural nutrient-cycles to provide crop nutrition and more natural, preventative methods of pest, disease and weed management. In both cases organic farmers rely on natural ecological processes to provide services that are normally bought in as ‘inputs’ in conventional farming systems. In practice, organic farming strictly restricts the use of artificial chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides. Animals are reared without the routine use of drugs, antibiotics and de-wormers and should be allowed to display more natural behaviours.

Biodiverse, sustainable farming systems naturally lead to diverse farm enterprises. Organic farmers often integrate various farm enterprises and, typically, organic farms run more complex and labour-intensive farm operations. Many are also involved in more direct marketing of produce to local consumers and even, in some cases, linking consumers with crop production. Such diverse enterprises are also capable of meeting many of the social principles of organic farming and wider rural development initiatives.

An organic farm is part of the ecological and social landscape

Above all, most practitioners of organic agriculture would describe their practices as holistic. That is, integrating the various practices and management methods so that the farm operation becomes a system of interlocking and interactive parts that work together.

AIM OF BOOK

The subsequent chapters of this book aim to give an overview of current, appropriate, practice in organic vegetable and potato production systems. It will cover the general principles of organic-vegetable production, starting with an overview of organic vegetable production systems in the UK and the conversion of conventional to organic production practices, in the latter case indicating potential problems that might arise. It will then develop the key production themes, including crops, fertility building, weed-control and pest and disease management. These themes have then been brought together under a series of chapters that consider the practical farm-management aspects of production, includi...