From the Ground Up? The Principles of Australian Organic Agriculture - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 222

organic farming operations and the surrounding environment” (Standards Australia
2009 , 47.2).
Organic societies of the 1950s encouraged organic growers to protect and
enhance on-farm native flora, fauna and habitats as a way of co-operating with
native ecosystems. Today the national standards make it mandatory for certified
organic farmers to protect primary native ecosystems on their properties such as
forest, scrub, wetlands and native pastures. They are required to maintain and
increase these ecosystems by setting aside at least 5 % of their property as refuges
for indigenous flora and fauna and native habitat ecosystems (Standards Australia
2009 ). On his 40 ha property, Matthew Jamieson has reserved 3 ha of indigenous
subtropical rainforest which is approximately 8 % of the total farm area (Jamieson
2006 ). Anthony Sheldon, in the semi-arid Mallee has fenced off and planted 250,000
native species of plants. This now covers about 250 ha which is a little less than one
quarter of his farm. Although initially he was unsure about loosing this amount of
productive land he recognized these areas acted as windbreaks, reduced sand drift
and provided habitat for beneficial native birds, insects and other flora and fauna
(Sheldon 2006 ).
As drought, climate change and resource conservation have become poignant
issues in Australia during the 2000s, organic growers have promoted organic
methods of food production as part of broader environmental solutions to ecological
damage. In this context human health is defined in the broadest sense; not so much in
terms of particular diseases but as a matter of human and planetary survival. During
the 2000s, organic growers have begun to see themselves as having a central role in
mitigating global warming. Organic organizations such the Biological Farmers of
Australia, the Rodale Institute in the United States and IFOAM, as well as scientists
such as Tim Flannery now speak about organic farming as a strategy for combating
climate change. Organic farming is discussed as a strategy for reducing the amount
of carbon dioxide, one of the most problematic greenhouse gases contributing to
global warming (The Rodale Institute 2003 ; Kotschi and Müller-Sämann 2004 ;
Australia 2006 ; Flannery 2006 ).
Carbon is one of the natural constituents of soil, being contained in the organic
matter component of the soil. The absorption of carbon by the soil is part of the
continual cycling of carbon between air, vegetation and animals in the process of
growth and decay. Soil naturally contains more carbon than both vegetation and
the atmosphere (Flannery 2006 ). Organic practices such as composting, mulching,
cover crops, manuring and recycling crop wastes such as stubble all increase the
organic matter in the soil, and therefore also raise carbon levels in soil, creating
a long-lived secure store of carbon. By increasing soil carbon that comes largely
from carbon dioxide gas, atmospheric carbon is reduced. The amount of carbon
sequestered in this way varies according to soil type. Soils in arid agricultural areas,
such as inland Australia are able to store up to 150 kg of carbon per hectare while
soils in moist cool or humid areas such as temperate, coastal southern Australia and
tropical northern Australia are able to store up to 1,000 kg per hectare. Therefore
regular organic agricultural food production methods have the potential to offset
global carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 5 and 15 % (Lal 2004 ).