Organic agriculture does not equal sustainable agriculture

How are organic and sustainable related? In sum, they overlap. After managing orchards and then vineyards for 30 years, I respect any farm that has committed itself to organic practices and gone through the arduous process of certification.

I know how demanding the process is, having gone through it myself with Sokol Blosser Vineyard. For me, organic certification was just one piece of our overall quest for sustainability. We chose to define sustainability using the four system conditions of The Natural Step. We chose the TNS framework as the lens through which we looked at all our business practices.

Organic agriculture does not equal sustainable agriculture. I participated in sustainable agricultural certification programs through the Food Alliance and Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE) for years before taking the leap to USDA organic. I thought it would be a short hop but it turned out to be a leap. What I discovered was that while the sustainable programs did all the right things by encouraging biodiversity, cover crops, and using the most benign chemicals, they held out a safety net. If your farm suffered a bad infestation, you could use a heavy hitting synthetic chemical to deal with it. The rigor of organic certification was its prohibition of any synthetic chemicals or fertilizers. It was walking the high wire with nothing below to catch you if you fell.

What that meant in practical terms was that you had to be so good you didn’t fall; our vines had to be so healthy they would be immune to disease and pests. We did not have the option of conventional chemicals. People have criticized the organic regulations as being negative and it’s true they are written in terms of what is not allowed. But the reality is that if the conventional cures are not allowed, one had to proactively take steps to prevent problems.

To be sustainable, and follow TNS system conditions, farmers need to consider more than sprays and fertilizers. Cutting back on tractor passes, using biodiesel, building tilth rather than tilling the soil, treating workers with respect and appreciation, and encouraging biodiversity and ecological balance all fall under the four TNS system conditions. Organic certification doesn’t mandate many of the practices that make for sustainable farming. The ideal is to combine the strictness of organic within the larger framework of sustainability.

Susan Sokol Blosser is Founder of the Sokol Blosser Winery. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Natural Step Network.

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