Today post is going to separate agroecological farming from organic farming
Although agroecological farming shares some of the same principles as organic farming, agroecology is not associated with a particular type of agriculture. Conventional and organic farms alike can take an agroecological approach to managing farmland.
What is agroecology?
Agroecology views agriculture from a ecological perspective. Farmland,after all, is an ecosystem- a complex network which every living and nonliving component of the system affects every other component, either directly or indirectly.
This ecosytem view of agriculture considers all of the services provided by farmland to humans-soil health, water quality, pest control, disease control, biodiversity, and so forth- in addition to food production.
Agroecological farming strives to create stable food production systems that are resilient to environmental perturbations such as climate change and disease. The only way to achieve this goal is to go beyond thinking of farms as linear systems in which inputs (acreage fertilizer, pesticides, etc.) influence output (food yield), and start treating farmland as complex webs of ecological interactions.
Is Organic food agroecological?
Not necessarily. Most of the organic food you use in the grocery store is from industrial operations that do not think ecologically. Instead of managing their farmland as ecosystems, large-scale organic farms focus solely on producing as much as possible.
Sure, big organic farms don't use synthetic chemicals, but they do little to manage the ecosystem services provided by farmland. They rely heavily on fossil fuel, erode soils, pollute water supplies, destroy native wildlife habitat, and so forth. Intensive agriculture-even intensive organic agriculture-is generally a pretty environmentally destructive practice.
But if you go beyond the grocery store, you can find food from growers that are tyring to manage their farmland as ecosystems. There are plenty of small, alternative farms striving to create sustainable food production systems.
Farms that focus on restoring and maintaining soil health are less dependent on chemical inputs, because plants grown in healthy soil can better access their natural defenses to ward off pests and disease.
Farmers that think ecologically also tend to let their animals do a lot of the work for them. By allowing animals to perform their natural behaviors, farmers can use livestock to enhance the farmland ecosystem.
For instance, chickens can be moved from field to clean up vegetable patches before a new crop is planted. In addition to clearing out ol vegetation, chickens eat insect pests, aerate the soil as they scarch for food, and leave, and leave each patch with an ample dose of fertilizer. Pigs that are allowed to express their inherent piggyness- namely, rooting and wallowing, can be used to till a field or turn manure into compost. Rotating different species of farm animals across pastures can reduce disease-risk in livestock while keeping pastures rich in nutrients and dive in forage.
To find produce, dairy, or meat from this type of ecoagriltural farm, your best bet is to start talking to local farmers.
