Good Farming Principles

Has organic food fallen out of favor? Last week a new report touted organic produce as not being any better nutritionally than conventional food. So you have to wonder, is the “bloom off the rose”? Probably not. The organic market has just morphed a bit. If you go back a few years to the peak of organic food’s popularity, you’d notice that everybody and their dog wanted to jump on the organic label bandwagon, sometimes without having the actual organic substance to back it up. This has perhaps made the need for being organically certified less important. That doesn’t mean that the heart and soul of the organic food movement has withered up and died, but it does mean that perhaps it’s matured. Many organic foodies have come to realize they would much rather buy food that, while maybe not organic, was locally grown and sustainable, as opposed to being organic food shipped from thousands of miles away. People have found that it isn’t so “black and white” as they previously thought. It never has been as simple as saying all organic farming is good, and all conventional farming is bad, and it never will be. The fundamental principles that define good farming cannot be pigeonholed so easily.