Agriculture Reference
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et al. 2002). However, organic farming depends heavily on tillage to bury organic
manures and to spread the nitrogen stored in the roots of legumes through the soil.
The compaction produced during tillage can cancel out any improvements in quality,
particularly where carrots are grown (Ball and Crawford 2009).
Globally, in 2006, organic farming occupied only 0.65% of agricultural land or
30.4 million ha (de Castro 2009). Organic farming can increase food security in
Africa by producing increased yields for small-scale farmers without the need for
inputs of fertilizers and pesticides. Biological approaches to increasing fertility are
exploited, such as inoculating plants with nitrogen-storing bacteria or adding mycor-
rhizal fungi to soil to help nutrient exchange between the soil and the roots. In the
long term, this should help to reduce the future dependence on food imports in fluc-
tuating world markets.
To me, the best thing about organic farming is not the principles or the defined
markets but the mindset of the organic farmers and producers, which is driven by
their connection to the land and to the people. They are highly motivated because
organic farming demands commitment and a high standard of management. They
see their farm as an organic whole. This holism extends beyond the farm to the
workers making the food products. In some cases, this extends beyond the farm.
Weckmann (2009) described an organic bakery in Germany that is based on a sys-
tem called corporate social responsibility, where the purpose of the company is not
to achieve the maximum return for its shareholders but to produce good products
and to contribute a positive benefit to society. The company has a fixed target of
providing donations of 10% of net profit to support development initiatives and social
engagement of employees in the areas of mentoring, information, and training. It
also claims to process 100% ecologically certified raw materials into 100% ecologi-
cal products. This is an exemplary fair trade model that appears to achieve the triple
goals of organic farming of ecological, social, and economic sustainability. This is a
good example of holism extending beyond the farm gate, interconnecting the farmer,
processor, and consumer.
This and other forms of alternative or low-input agriculture termed “ecologically
sustainable” clearly accord with the principles of deep ecology since they emphasize
independence, community, harmony with nature, diversity, and restraint (Beus and
Dunlap 1990).
Conventional farms also have “spirit.” As a student, I worked on several farms all
producing similar crops, but the management of the resources and the workers was
quite different. Where the farmer still lived in the farmhouse, the spirit of the place
felt good as this was close to the traditional farming role of supporting the family.
Working the land where no one lived felt more like exploiting a resource for profit.
I believe that the nature and the location of the people influenced the spirit of each
place and the quality of the food that was produced. Berry (2009) considers that
technology allows farming to increase to a scale that is undemocratic because there
are not enough people owning and working the land and insufficient attention to the
overall quality of the farming system.
The lessons we draw from this for soil management are, first, that the soil needs to
be considered as an organized whole. As soil specialists, we tend to label ourselves
as soil physicists, soil chemists, soil biologists, and modelers. We need to see our
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