Amy Hepworth, an organic farmer in New York’s Hudson Valley, also believes in the importance of soil health and working with nature, but thinks that science and technology, deployed judiciously, can help her do just that, sometimes with fewer adverse effects than natural substances. “Natural doesn’t mean safe,” she says.
But this doesn’t mean the natural/synthetic distinction is silly or meaningless. Far from it. Organic’s emphasis on natural substances and systems clearly taps into a mind-set of both farmers and consumers. The USDA organic standard has codified that mind-set and, in doing so, has allowed organic farmers to find like-minded consumers willing to pay a premium for their products. That’s a very good thing.
Hepworth, who grows 350 products on the 200 acres that her family has been farming for nearly two centuries, was part of the movement that created organic, but is frustrated by the standards’ constraints, which force her to pay more for products that don’t provide benefits to her, her farm or her customers. When there are organic and conventional pesticides with the same mode of action (such as spinosad), the organic is always more expensive.
And then there are synthetics, the man-made substances used in conventional farming. “When you say pesticides and chemicals, we’re so indoctrinated that it feels like we’re saying the word poison,” says Hepworth, “but we need confidence in agriculture beyond organic. The most sustainable, responsible system is a hybrid system.”
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A hybrid system. A third way. A best-practices standard. Michael Rozyne, director of regional food distributor Red Tomato, calls it simply “something bigger.”
It would help disassemble what Hepworth calls the “two-party system,” in which it’s all too easy to believe that organic is good and conventional is bad. That idea has contributed to the us-and-them mentality that seems to dominate discussions about our agricultural system. “There’s been a lot of judgment of conventional growers,” says Rozyne, “as if they all farmed the same way.”
Read the full, original article: Organic standards fight over synthetics shows there’s room for a third system
