Introduction
Organic farming today is seen as the healthier option for living specimens and the environment. Organic farming helps maintain and enhance soil and water quality. It also helps conserve wetlands, woodlands, and wildlife and avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers, sewage, irradiation, and genetic engineering. Organic farming is intended to protect the environment, minimize soil degradation and erosion, optimize biological productivity and promote a sound state of health (Martin 2016). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines organic agriculture as the application of a set cultural, biological, and mechanical practice that supports the cycling of on farm resources, promotes ecological balance, and conserves biodiversity.
Industrial farming is an intense farming in which machinery is purchased to substitute the labor of humans. It entails large amounts of innovation in agriculture machinery and uses synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and genetic technology. The goal of industrial farming is to increase each crop’s yield. A large part of industrial agriculture is monoculture which is the cultivation of one crop in an area. Monoculture is said to be harmful to the environment because it depletes nutrients in the soil. According to the USDA, industrial farming has started to incorporate crop rotation but only between two crops to allow mechanization of agriculture and avoid monoculture. “Mechanized farming allows faster, efficient planting, weeding, and harvesting, which reduces the destruction of habitats” (Porterfield 2018). Organic and industrial farming have differences in the fertilizer they use, how they treat animals, and water and soil treatment.
Fertilizers and Pesticides
Organic farming benefits the environment by using natural products to feed and enhance growth in plants and animals. “Using biological forms of fertilizer such as compost, animal manures, and legume cover crops helps build soil organic matter” (OFRF 2018). To feed the plants, a compost made up of leaves, grass, and food scraps is placed on top of the soil. This compost feeds the soil, then breaks down into organic matter, giving the soil nutrients which then gives the plant nutrients. Manure is a readily available nutrient enhancer for farms who raise livestock and grow plants. Manure can improve soil, tilth and aeration. It increases the amount of water that is able to be held in the soil and will stimulate activity of micro-organisms that made plant food elements in the soil available to crops. Organic farming also uses green manures as a fertilizer which are plants that are grown to improve the structure, organic matter content and nutrient content of the soil. Green manure helps the environment by increasing and recycling plant nutrients and organic matter. It improves soil fertility, soil structure and the ability of the soil to hold water. Soil erosion is controlled and weed growth is prevented with green manure.
Organic agriculture uses the ‘PAMS’ technique for pest management which stands for prevention, avoidance, monitoring and suppression. Prevention includes preventing pests and avoiding pests, weeds, and disease. Then farmers monitor the field and will suppress any unwanted pests. To get rid of the pests, farmers can till with approved pesticides or release other insects that will eat the harmful pests without harming the crop.
All plants need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for healthy growth and productivity (Foodprint 2018). Industrial farming uses synthetic fertilizer to boost those nutrients and produce a healthy plant to get higher yields. Conforming to the USDA, most nutrients are absorbed by the crop, but when applied in excess, the nutrients can dissolve into the air, leaching into groundwater, and runoff into surface water. In 2015, Zhou researched that synthetic nitrogen fertilizer decreases soil’s microbiological diversity and can cause soil acidification (Zhou 2017). Synthetic fertilizers use up organic matter in soil by the nitrogen in the fertilizer stimulating soil microbes. These microbes consume more organic matter than what is added to the soil from crop and plant residue. Excessive fertilizer allows salts in soil to build up, causing heavy metal contamination and accumulation of nitrate. Pesticides are designed to kill organisms in the soil but can kill all organisms, including healthy ones. “Farmers manage pests with genetically engineered insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant seeds for certain crops” (USDA 2018). As organic matter decreases, the soil’s physical structure loses its ability to absorb water, air, and organic nitrogen.
Animal Treatment
The USDA states that organic livestock must be produced without genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge. The livestock should be managed in a manner that conserves natural resources and biodiversity. The animals need to be fed well under as little stress as possible without antibiotics or growth hormones. “Animals are fed with 100 percent of organic feed, except for trace minerals and vitamins used to meet the animal’s nutritional requirements” (USDA 2013). Year-round access to outdoor organic land must be provided. There is always access to shade, clean and dry bedding, shelter, space for exercise, fresh air, clean drinking water, and direct sunlight. Organic farmers cannot use drugs to prevent illnesses so they use animal selection and management practices. If the livestock does get sick they are allowed to receive pain medication, dewormers, and a vaccine for the type of illness they have contracted. The animal cannot be sold as an organic product if treated with a prohibited substance such as an antibiotic. Livestock is fed hay, grain, and other organic agricultural products. As reported by the USDA, pasture-based diets improve livestock’s digestive health that helps increase beneficial microorganisms.
The Organic animal welfare states that livestock must be raised in living condition accommodating their natural behaviors, fed organic feed, not given hormones or unnecessary antibiotics (USDA 2018). However, there are still a lot of animal welfare issues in organic livestock that have exceptions. Standards do not provide requirements for an animal’s space or outdoor access. There are no rules to protect organic male chicks in egg-laying from being gassed, suffocated, or disposed of in inhumane ways. Organic egg chickens are killed for meat after a certain period of time. Chickens can be kept under continuous lighting and are able to be fed excessive amounts. There are no rules against clipping beaks, debeaking, dehorning, or castration without painkillers. Dairy cows are able to live in small spaces or tied up. These organic dairy cows will also be killed for meat. Pigs are allowed to have their tails chopped off, and their ears cut. There are no set rules against rough handling livestock or how a farmer can kill an animal.
Industrial livestock farming is seen as cruel and abusive. According to Geer, the industrial farming system has created a huge prison system for animals where they are no longer capable of feelings or thoughts. They are treated as products on an assembly line from the time they are born to when they are murdered (Geer 2014). Most of the animals will never have fresh air in their lungs, fully extend their limbs, or exhibit their natural behaviors. Pigs face many health problems such as pneumonia, pleuritis and bacterial infections because of the cramped dirty conditions they live in. “Indoor operations are characterized by concrete, slatted floors and steel fixtures. Slatted floors facilitate manure handling animals wastes as it falls through the flooring into a pit and transferred to an outdoor holding area” (HSUS 2010). The manure releases gases containing ammonia which is the main cause of pneumonia and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome in the pigs (Greer 2014). There is dust in industrial animal facilities that contain hazardous agents such as fungi, endotoxins, and bacteria.
Animals are given hormones to gain weight up to three times faster than growing at a natural weight. They all live in cramped spaces which restricts their movements to exercise. Chickens that are producing a lot of weight in a short time are unable to walk properly because the bones and muscles in their legs struggle to support their body mass. Dairy cows are aggressively bred, fed, and drugged to produce a lot of milk in a short time. All animals in industrial farming are given drugs to be able to produce more in a short period of time.
Water and Soil Treatment
In soil-based agriculture the soil’s health is an important part of the ecosystem. Soil is made up of minerals, water, air and organic material. Soil fertility is important when growing crops because it is the interaction of biological, chemical and physical attributes. Soil fertility is determined by organic matter which consists of soil nutrient status, soil physical conditions, and soil biological activity. Organic farming relies on crop rotation and cover crops to improve soil fertility. Organic farming uses legume cover crops to help increase soil organic matter, even when tillage is used for weed control. Cover crops return nutrients to soil and legumes enrich the soil with nitrogen. Building soil organic matter increases soil water retention and nurtures more active soil microbial communities that retain nitrogen in the soil longer and transform it into non-leachable gaseous forms. Increased soil organic matter in the soil leads to a more compact nutrient cycling and larger water holding capability in organically managed soils. Nitrate seeping from groundwater is half that of conventionally farmed soils. The National Organic Program (NOP) conducted a 12-year study showing that organic fields had half the annual nitrate leaching losses than industrial fields (NOP 2017).
Synthetic fertilizers and monocropping, can degrade soil over time, causing many problems necessitating the use of even more man-made products. Synthetic fertilizers cause heavy metal contamination and accumulation of nitrate which is a source of water pollution and also harmful to humans. Nitrate is highly soluble and can easily leach into groundwater. There are two ways that fertilizer enters groundwater. The first way is rainwater picking up the fertilizer and bringing it into a stream as runoff. “The water in streams replenishes groundwater, so the chemicals are absorbed into the groundwater as well (Davies 2016). The second method is through leaching, which is a downward movement of a substance through the soil. The excess nutrients from the fertilizer runs off into waterways causing algae blooms that can make waterways impassable. When the algae die, it sinks to the bottom and decomposes causing all oxygen to be removed from the water. Aquatic species will ingest chemicals and become diseased eventually dying in these “dead zones”.
Monocropping removes nutrients from soil and reduces organic matter causing erosion. Industrial farming has begun to rotate between two crops so it is not classified as monoculture. However, it is a “simple” form of rotation that does not give the same benefit to the soil as a complex rotation with three or four crops in organic farming. Yields go up by as much as 10 percent in a non-drought year with complex rotation (Foodprint 2018). Monoculture and simple crop rotation alter the microbial landscape of soil, decreasing beneficial microbes, resulting in poor plant growth. Since monocropping attracts pests, industrial farms use pesticides. Some residue from pesticides can be broken down by microbes but if it is unable to be broken down then it accumulates in the soil. Pesticides that have glyphosate decrease microbial biodiversity in soil, impacting nitrogen fixing microbes important to soil health and fertility (Foodprint 2018).
In industrial farming tillage, soil compaction and erosion all occur. Tilling is preparing and cultivating land for crops. Heavy farm equipment and mechanical tillage can result in soil compaction and soil erosion. Compaction is caused by farm machinery and tilling when soil is wet. Compaction is becoming more of a problem as machinery is getting heavier. It leads to poor water absorption and aeration which causes stunted root growth. Soil erosion is when topsoil particles wear away from wind, water and farming activities. Tilling and not planting cover crops can cause soil erosion because it is poor soil management. Erosion is a problem because topsoil contains natural nutrients and organic material, which is important for plants to thrive, so when it is lost then soil fertility is lost. Soil fertility loss can cause a change in the structure of soil which can lead to increased susceptibility to drought. Eroded soil can become runoff and wash into waterways, carrying soil particles and contaminants such as synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Wind erosion causes topsoil loss, along with harm to crops, health problems, and property damage. Flooding can cause erosion because damaged soil cannot absorb as much water as healthy soil.
Conclusion
Research has concluded that organic fertilizers help restore the structure of soil and circulation of air, which increases growth of beneficial microorganisms that help release nutrients in the soil. It also reduces the danger of over-fertilization as the nutrients are released slowly, which makes them available longer to the soil. Organic fertilizers continue to improve soil after plants have taken the nutrients needed. As stated earlier, manure is a commonly used fertilizer because it is a natural product produced by livestock and an easily found source. Green manure helps the environment by increasing and recycling plant nutrients and organic matter. It improves soil fertility, soil structure and the ability of the soil to hold water. However, organic crops produce slower than crops used with synthetic fertilizer, but synthetic fertilizers destroy soil biodiversity by decreasing the function of nitrogen. Overall, organic fertilizer is a natural product that enriches the soil, improving the soil’s ability to hold water. The cons are that nutrients are released slowly, requires more labor, and the fertilizer needs warmth and moisture to work. Synthetic fertilizer is fast-acting, can be applied quickly, ensures ratios of nutrients, and is less expensive. The disadvantages of synthetic fertilizer are it can deplete nutrients from the soil, potential buildup of toxic chemicals, may leach into other areas, and is made from chemically-processed products.
Livestock is treated more humane in organic agriculture as they are not injected with drugs. Industrial bred animals are injected with hormones to grow bigger and faster than average, but organic livestock grows at a normal rate. Also, in organic farming the livestock must access to the outdoors, unlike industrial where animals rarely see sunlight. Organic animals must receive treatment right away and cannot be withheld from organic medication. Industrial livestock does not receive treatment most of the time and end up contracting disease. This concludes that organically farmed animals are better bred and healthier.
Organic farming tries to keep nutrients in the soil by relying on an active microbial community to break down organic matter. It has increased richness, decreased evenness, reduced dispersion and shifted the structure of the soil microbiota compared to industrial farming. Industrial farming treats the soil with synthetic fertilizer in attempt to return nutrients to the soil. However, the soil has less organic matter every season, allowing nitrogen to go into waterways and be released into the air.