In recognition of Canada’s Organic Week, the Western Producer is running an additional Organic Matters column this month. The regular column will appear in the first edition of November.
Oct. 15-22 has been designated Organic Week and will feature activities to celebrate organic food and farming.
This is a good time to take a look at the successes the organic community has achieved and the challenges it still faces.
Organics can no longer be dismissed as a fringe element, a passing trend or the lonely refuge of the diehard hippie.
Read Also
First annual Ag in Motion Junior Cattle Show kicks off with a bang
Ag in Motion 2025 had its first annual junior cattle show on July 15. The show hosted more than 20…
Organics are established in the marketplace and in the psyche of Canadians, Americans and Europeans.
“The Canadian organic sector has been growing 20 to 35 percent a year, a fairly breathless pace, for many years,” says Matt Holmes, executive director of the Canada Organic Trade Association.
“Even … in the thick of the recession, we saw a slowing down of that growth, but it was still growth.”
However, export markets for organic grain have not been as buoyant in the face of the recession and of rising value of the Canadian dollar. Product is just beginning to move again following the phenomenal prices of previous years and the market stall of the last couple years.
The core organic consumer “gets it,” but marketing has failed to differentiate organic from natural in many consumers’ minds. Many don’t realize that natural is an unregulated term, which the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says is “often misused in labels and in advertisements.”
Organic, on the other hand, is tightly defined, and organic products are third party verified to meet the conditions of their standard.
Canada has an organic standard that was developed by the organic community and enshrined in a mandatory national regulation.
It clearly lays out organic principles: protecting the environment, maintaining soil fertility and biological diversity, recycling resources, providing attentive care to animals, maintaining organic integrity and working toward local agricultural systems.
The standard also clearly indicates processes and practices that are required, approved or disallowed. The Canadian organic standard is a strong marketing tool, assuring distant customers that Canadian organic products have integrity.
Although Canada has a national organic standard, agriculture is a provincial responsibility, and most provincial governments have not ratified the standard, so it is fully expressed within provincial boundaries.
Quebec and British Columbia are the only provinces with provincial organic standards. Other provinces have been slow to respond.
Organic certification is an expensive process. Third party verification involves annual visits by trained inspectors. Producers with limited sales find that the costs are not justified. Simpler, cheaper certification for low risk, small value operations has not yet been developed.
The pioneers of organic agriculture were met with skepticism and often disdain when they claimed they could farm without synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms.
Organic producers have since proven that oats, wheat, barley and rye can be grown easily under organic production, and that lentils, flax, peas, hemp, kaput, spelt and mustard can be grown with proper care and rotation management. Research studies and farmers have shown that organic rotations can be profitable.
However, phosphorus fertility has been identified as a potential problem. Studies now ask if this is a real problem or a reflection of how phosphorus is measured.
GM crops continue to threaten the ability of organic farmers to grow crops without contamination. Canola is largely lost to organic growers, and they worry that alfalfa may soon follow.
Several factors discourage the integration of livestock and the use of perennial crops. It is hard to value natural vegetation in our current economic system. The closer organic systems come to mimicking nature, the more resilient they will be.
Derek Lynch, Canada research chair in organic agriculture, has found that organic farming reduces energy consumption by an average of at least 20 percent compared to conventional farming, primarily because of its focus on green manures rather than synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.
Organic agriculture also contributes less to global warming.
Often the added input of carbon in green manures mitigates any impacts of tillage. Organic practice s build soil biodiversity and microbial activity.
On the other hand, weather has been especially challenging in recent years. Seeding and weed control have been difficult in waterlogged soils.
Climate change models suggest that agriculture will need to work on weather proofing to prosper in the future. Perhaps some of that will include restoring natural wetlands and drainages.
So, overall, how is organics doing? It seems there is much to celebrate this Organic Week. Organic farming has shown great potential as an environmentally sound, healthy, profitable and popular consumer choice. Although challenges remain, the path ahead looks hopeful.
Brenda Frick, Ph. D., P. Ag. is an extension agrologist and researcher in organic agriculture. She welcomes your comments at 306-260-0663 or email organic@usask.ca.
ORGANIC EVENTS
Oct 15-22: Organic Week, www.organicweek.ca/events. php
Oct 16: Dining with the Stars, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Regina, Marion at b.mcbride@sasktel.net
Oct 18 and 26: Social media marketing training, marguirite.thiessen@gov.ab.ca
