Our Farms

In terms of agriculture and the growing of food, organic is a term that specifies the types of amendments that can be applied to an agricultural field. Amendments are substances that farmers put into their fields to grow things. The following is a basic list of all the amendments used in conventional agriculture:

- Seeds

- Water

- Fertilizers

- Herbicides (used to control weeds)

- Pesticides (used to control bugs and pests)

- Fungicides (used to control fungi)

- Transplants (seeds grown in a greenhouse then transplanted into fields)

The basic definition of an organic amendment is that it can be found naturally in the environment. Items that are naturally found in the environment and are chemically altered from their original form are NOT considered organic.  Sulfur is a good example, it is an item that is naturally mined and is permitted for use as a fungicide in organic agriculture. However if sulfur is burned (chemically altering it), the result is sulfuric acid, which is not permitted in organic agriculture - but it is used in conventional agriculture to change the pH of irrigation water.

Fertilizers are a major amendment used in farming. Conventional farmers use synthetic fertilizers, which are chemicals like urea (form of nitrogen) which have been chemically produced from petroleum in factories. Items that organic farmers can use are limited to items that are naturally found in our environment like: animal manures, worm castings, seaweed, bat guano, blood meal, fish meal, feather meal and compost.