ORGANIC FOOD CANNOT legally be produced using genetically modified organisms, synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. 

You may be thinking “what is the harm in using a little Miracle-Gro?”  It may be true that limited amounts, selectively applied to small backyard garden areas where no runoff occurs, may not necessarily cause easily measurable (short term) problems.  But on a larger scale, the increased crop yields brought by synthetic fertilizers are often accompanied by major environmental costs.

Synthetic fertilizer use is often associated with eutrophication, which is the addition of unnatural amounts of chemical nutrients to an aquatic system.  This includes the addition of large amounts of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizer runoff, which are deposited into our rivers, lakes, and oceans.  These substances promote excessive unnatural plant growth and decay, favoring algae and plankton, ultimately causing a decrease in the level of oxygen, which is needed for fish and shellfish to survive.  This results in large dead zones near our coasts, particularly near rivers which contain agricultural runoff, decimating many fisheries. 

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science notes that there are now over 400 major dead zones in the world.  The largest U.S. dead zone, at the mouth of the Mississippi, encompasses an area of over 8,500 square miles, which is roughly the size of New Jersey.

Some fertilizers may also be contaminated with persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, and radioactive materials.  Synthetic fertilizer use is also associated with atmospheric problems due to increased methane and nitrous oxide emissions – each very potent greenhouse gases. 

There are also sustainability issues regarding the use of synthetic fertilizers.   Potassium and phosphorus must be mined, and nitrogen is obtained from fossil fuels.  Synthetic fertilizer production is also very energy intensive, utilizing large amounts of natural gas.

Another serious problem with adding excessive nitrogen to the soil is acidification.  Similar to increasing soil salinity due to irrigation, increasing soil acidification due to synthetic fertilizer use is rendering fertile farmland less productive. 

Ammonium nitrogen-based fertilizer that is not taken up by the plant increases soil acidity.  When soil pH drops, aluminum becomes soluble and retards plant root growth, restricting access to water and nutrients.  In very acid soils, major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, Sulphur, calcium, manganese, and molybdenum) may be unavailable to the plant – and therefore unavailable to the human eating the plant.  Acidic soils also negatively affect microbes in the soil, the underpinning of a functioning symbiotic soil ecosystem.  

You can read more about soil acidification at the Soil Quality Website.  Rancher Joel Huesby also wrote a very enlightening article “Soil Acidification: An Awakening Giant,” as a guest post for holisticmanagement.guide.  You can read Joel’s article here.

Synthetic nitrogen adds more yield to land today, but in so doing it is stealing from the yields of future generations.  This could easily result in food security issues.

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    CURRENT INCREASED crop yields have resulted in increased profits for the farmer, as well as initially lower prices for the consumer.  This however is a seductive trap, and it is not a sustainable course of action.  We are choosing to look at cost only as it pertains to a monetary price today, deciding to worry about costs to our health and environment sometime later in the future.  

We are presently placing our food supply at risk, diminishing our soil nutrients, and sometimes irreversibly altering natural ecosystems.  These are problems whose costs are not appropriately quantified by monetary terms alone -- although refusing to address these problems now will eventually require tremendous financial resources as well.

Next time:  GOING ORGANIC, PART 3:  A Few Thoughts on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s).