Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
From the Ground Up? The Principles
of Australian Organic Agriculture
Rebecca Jones
11.1
Background and Introduction
Organic agriculture today is described as an “industry” and its growers as “produc-
ers”, the food they grow is “an agricultural sector” and commercial organic farmers
take out “certification”. In Australia, like many other western nations, organic
farming is part of an industrialized, capitalist, agro-economy and commercial
organic production is influenced by government regulations. Despite this edifice
of industrialization and institutionalization are the values upon organic growing was
founded still relevant in organic production today?
In order to examine the values of organic agriculture in the past and present,
this chapter will, first explore the fundamental principles upon which Australian
organic agriculture was founded then, secondly, examine whether these principles
still resonate with, and are relevant to Australian organic agriculture. This study ana-
lyzed the documents of Australian organic growers organizations: The Australian
Organic Farming and Gardening Society of the state of New South Wales, the
Victorian Compost Society and the Living Soil Association of Tasmania which
were Australia's first three organic growers organizations, all founded in the 1940s.
Also analyzed are the documents of the two major, current Australian organic
producers' organizations: National Association for Sustainable Agriculture and
Australian Certified Organic (Biological Farmers of Australia). The documents from
all these organizations, which were analyzed thematically, included organizational
objectives, newsletters, organic agricultural standards and other organizational pub-
lications. Documentary sources were complemented by semi-structured, in-depth
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