Why Buy Organic?
Organic agriculture was developed as a safe and sustainable farming system, to produce healthy crops and livestock without causing damage to environment. The use of genetically modified organisms is forbidden, as is the use of artificial chemical fertilisers + pesticides, since they are harmful to the environment.
Put simply, organic farming uses methods of crop and animal husbandry that work in harmony with nature as opposed to dominating it.
Using safer methods to develop healthy fertile soil and growing a mixture of crops, the farm remains biologically balanced. This encourages many beneficial insects and wildlife that will act as natural predators to crop pests and enrich the soil with micro-organisms.
Soil erosion : Biodiversity is the living element of the natural world.
It is vital that we work in harmony with Nature to maintain its delicate balance.
Top soil takes hundreds of years to develop and cannot be replaced easily.
A lot of agricultural land has already been lost due to soil erosion, and in many places the overuse of aggressive agrochemicals has destroyed the delicate balance between wildlife and its natural habitat.
The amount of pesticides sprayed on our food and land in one year has reached an estimated 4.5 billion litres in the United Kingdom alone.
Pesticides are designed to kill pests, but they can also kill beneficial insects and plants and have a direct influence on the balance of the ecosystem.
Many pesticides, especially the organophosphate and organochlorine family, do not break down easily and can be absorbed into our food and eventually eaten by humans.
Only 10-15% of applied pesticides reaches the target pests, with 85-90% drifting downwind for up to a mile or more.
Diversity in nature : Organic agriculture helps to increase the level of biodiversity not only on the farm, but across the adjacent countryside.
This is because it uses tried and tested traditional farming practices including varied crop rotation, mixed systems, permanent pasture, no agrochemicals, use of farmyard manure and good hedge management.
Recent research has shown that this practice supports and nurtures the diversity of animals and plants in the countryside, providing them with food, refuge and a space to live and breed.
This is why we develop close working relationships with those growers who use traditional farming practices, in order to promote a more sustainable ecological environment for the future.
Using traditional methods, the farm remains biologically balanced, encouraging a soil rich in bio-organisms whilst sustaining a wide variety of beneficial insects and wildlife that act as natural predators for crop pests.
By supporting our organic farmers we help increase this level of biodiversity whilst also providing you with ecologically sound products.
This will also provide arable farmers with a much needed alternative to non-food crops at a time when many farms are no longer able to compete with cheaper imports.
Did you know?
The term ‘Organic’ is defined by Law, and within the European Union organic farming it is governed by the European Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 and means that farmers must follow strict rules.
Organic status is only awarded to producers who have been inspected and shown to comply with all the necessary organic standards.
Copyright © Quinessence Aromatherapy Ltd 2000. Written by Geoff Lyth
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