If you’re a chemist, the answer is of course yes, since I am approximately 18% carbon. But assuming we’re discussing the vexed matter of organic gardening, then am I? If so, why won’t I say so?
Monty Don made the news this week after several garden chemical companies complained that he failed to mention their insecticide products when discussing the problem of lily beetle on Gardener’s World. He said that the only way to control them is to pick them off and destroy them. Apparently the BBC agreed that he would in future be more balanced and Monty reacted as one might imagine – something on the lines of ‘over my dead body’, I assume, and the alleged spat made the news. If the story is half-true, pity the poor soul who had the job of ringing Monty up to discuss it…
Monty rightly received wide support for his stance on Twitter – but one response caught my eye, from Nigel Colborn, gardening writer for, amongst others, the Daily Mail. He said he wouldn’t use these neonicotinoid insectides, especially after the emergence of recent evidence like this, but also said he would never call himself an organic gardener, or join the organic ‘religion’. The reply touched a nerve with me, because I sometimes toy with the idea of describing the garden and the nursery as ‘organic’ but always step back. Somehow I can’t securely attach the label to myself and wear it with confidence.
Here’s the case for:
- I don’t use any chemical pesticides, herbicides or plant feeds
- I do use biological controls, plant based pesticides and a granular plant food from a reputable supplier labelled ‘organic’
- I only use peat-free compost
- Our home is partly heated by a wood-burning stove fired by our own wood, and the roof generates both hot water and electricity via solar panels.
- In the nursery, we produce as many plants as we can ourselves, and buy as much of the rest as possible from UK wholesalers in tiny plants to cut down transport costs.
Cut and dried, isn’t it? Organic to my boots.
Well, it depends on what definition of organic you go by. For many, it simply means the avoidance of chemical controls i.e. the exclusive use of plant or animal based fertilisers and pesticides. The use of peat doesn’t matter one way or another – I could use bales of the stuff and still be organic. The solar panels are just a distraction too. On this definition, I certainly am.
For others it’s an entire way of managing the land and of working with the cycle of life. It means returning fertility to the land via composting, minimising inputs of all types. In effect it’s about harvesting the solar energy that lands on your land and the fertility in your soil and living entirely off it, by growing your own, recycling everything onto it and bartering your surpluses for that which you can’t produce. I don’t know anyone doing that in the UK in the 21st Century. I guess someone, somewhere does.
On this second measure, or anything like it, I fail spectacularly.
You see, despite our solar panels and all the rest of it, Dave and I are still above average consumers of energy on a UK measure and massively so on a global measure. Why? Because we live in a fairly big detached house, drive two cars and have lots of electrical gadgetry. (I suspect Monty’s energy use is similarly high, given his busy lifestyle, not least because of the travelling). We do some composting, but not nearly enough to supply the nursery, so we buy that in too.
And in the garden and nursery, we pot all our plants into plastic pots, consuming fossil fuels and energy in the process. (I tried biodegradable ones and they were a disaster on the nursery. Dried out too quick, can’t get plants out for potting on, etc.) Young plants are transported to us on lorries and our output is taken away by customers who drive here in cars. The garden is large, and even now that I’ve reduced the lawns by over half in favour of new beds or wildflower meadows we still burn petrol every week in the mowers.
So, what do you think now? Should I stop fretting about the exact extent to which I am organic and just wear the badge with pride? Or, like the not-quite-vegetarian-who-refuses-to-call-herself-a-vegetarian-even-though-everyone-else-does, that I am, shall I continue to resist calling myself ‘organic’ because I know I fall far short of any sense of the proper meaning of it?
We all live lives full of best endeavours and compromises. So enjoy your gardening, however you do it. And to cheer you up and smooth your now furrowed brow, here’s a picture of the two six week old kittens which we brought home yesterday. Nursery mousers, I hope…
15 Responses to “Am I ‘Organic’?”
Thanks for an interesting post, Sue.
There are several reasons for my not wanting to branded as 'organic.'
Like you, we refrain from using chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers and, like you our house is largely heated by wood stoves. We have central heating but use it only in extreme conditions – just from Christmas to end February, this year,and then only at limited times.
In the eight years that we've been living in our current home, biodiversity has increased dramatically. Habitat maintenance is an obsession with me and is far more important than weeds, or pests, or getting the best out of my vegetables. My garden would be deemed untidy and formless by many, I suspect, but having watched wanton habitat destruction, in the name of that obscene word 'tidiness' all around our area, I feel I'm fighting a hopeless rearguard action to protect what little biodiversity is left.
However, if I felt I needed to use glyphosate, to clear part of my yard, or if I wanted to destroy slugs and snails within the confines of my greenhouse, by using blue slug pellets, I'd do so.
I see not one jot of difference between burning off weeds with a flame gun or spraying them with glyphosate.
However, I have no intention, currently, of using nematodes for slug control. I dislike the idea of using such creatures, souped up as they are with pathogenic bacteria, to kill molluscs since there have never been tests to see what other effects such things might have on soil micro-organisms.
Do you see where I'm coming from? What I'm trying to say, I suppose, is that the Organic Movement seems to have assumed the moral high ground. It has dictated what is good and what is bad and on top of that, has suggested that only by adopting Soil Association-type organic principles can mankind's existence on this planet be saved and its population safely fed.
Meanwhile, at the current rate, we could have food rationing within the half century, water supplies are in jeopardy and climate change is undermining our ability to build up crop yields by the amount desperately needed.
It will not be possible, indeed, it is not possible even now, to feed an urbanised world using only organic production methods. We have to allow science – REAL science, not mumbo-jumbo – to try to find the means of dealing with this terrifying bottleneck where burgeoning and increasingly sophisticated populations find themselves delving into the bottom of the resources sack.
Organic people, like everyone else, need to re-visit genetic modification, as well as all the other possible routes to safer, less resource hungry food production.
That, badly expressed and hastily scratched out, is why I will never be called and never want to be called an organic gardener. It's far to serious to adopt such a quasi-religious set of rubrics.
End of rant. Please forgive such a long response.
Excellent response/rant – thank you Nigel. You and I have somewhat different positions on different issues, but I think that's the point – there is no universally agreed view about what organic means. Water use and climate change matter at least as much, as you say. One could read every scientific paper ever written on the subject and still feel there was much missed out, or insufficiently considered to reach a definitive view, other than that we should all just consume less.
For what it's worth, I don't use the metaldehyde slug pellets or the nematodes. I occasionally use the ferric phosphate ones. On the packet it says Organic- but how can a product with no carbon content and not of animal or plant origin be organic, in any sense?
I don't use any chemicals/pellets etc labelled organic or not- I plant sacrificial ( home grown) soft leaved plants such as lettuce and accept that I may lose some plants I want to keep, so I grow more than I need to compensate.
We don't spray any chemicals, anywhere – and grow and garden way in excess of the SA organic standards ( And yes I am a member, and also of HDRA) .
Not saying this to brag, or boast btw. Am just saying.
Mind you we are only feeding ourselves and I sell the surplus plants and produce at the gate – so are not depending on the sales to live on – ( just to buy next year's organic seed!) although the stuff I grow IS a huge part of our diet so is a huge part of saving money for us.
If I were growing stuff to make a living from it maybe I would feel differently? But I suspect I would not and would try valiently to be 100% organic in every way – but maybe I would go bust? Not sure about that!
You express very interestingly something I have thought about a lot in my own garden. I too avoid the use of chemicals and pesticides, make vast quantities of compost in my nine compost bins (not enough, never enough)and try to produce healthy plants by growing what works up here. I occasionally use ferric phosphate slug pellets, but that is rare. I do use peat based potting compost from time to time as I have not found a non peat based one which does as well, but again, I don't use a lot. We conserve water frantically, with nine water butts, one 2000 litre tank which takes the water off the house and four 1000 litre tanks which take water off the larger outbuildings. Inside we burn wood provided for us by our tree surgeon neighbour. Clearly we are not organic (that compost, the occasional use of glyphosate too) but I am profoundly against the use of garden chemicals and pesticides and profoundly pro gardening in a way which promotes biodiversity, conserves habitats and helps pollinating insects. I feel that I am in tune with much that the organic movement stands for yet take all Nigel's points about the blind spots of focussing on organic answers. In the end for me it comes down to being thoughtful rather than organic and trying to examine what I am doing and why. So yes, another one who declines the term.
Superb post and excellent comments, thank you. I cannot be as articulate as either Sue or Nigel but find myself nodding and agreeing. I don't use chemicals in the garden. We have a wood burning stove and solar panels – we also have two cars, countless PC's and electronic devices, bla bla bla. Very thought provoking.
As for Monty, I have so enjoyed him back at the helm of GW, a programme I completely stopped watching in the Buckland years. I wonder how long the Lord of Cord will remain as lead presenter now he's upset the corporate apple-cart?
Oh well, at least Beechgrove still endures.
Elizabeth – can I just say that despite your occasional use of peat and glyphosate (shock horror!) I consider you more 'organic' than me because you do so much more composting and water collecting. It is indeed about much more than simply adhering to a list of banned or approved products. Thanks for your thoughtful contribution to the debate.
You are way more organic than me, in the proper sense of the word! Thanks for the reply.
I think it is down to each of us to do the best we can within what we believe we are able to do/believe in & can square it with our consciences. I don't think a label is helpful in these circumstances & can sometimes be negative if you feel bad/guilty if you can't 'tick a box'.
We all fall short, as Ms B says perhaps we all just do as much as we can to help within the limitations of our lives.
I find myself in a similar boat to people above – I avoid chemical sprays, but use iron phosphate slug pellets where needed, compost as much as possible, and try to garden in as natural a way as I can. The only way modern life becomes compatible with being totally "organic" is to seriously inconveniance yourself, possibly becoming a hermit in the process. I have to say that I agree with Monty's stance of refusing to recommend something he doesn't believe in using himself, and probably for good reason!
My daughter has an allotment and tries to be organic. However she is also strongly vegetarian and stumped me when she asked me to recommend a slow release fertiliser which is both organic and vegetarian; so no bone meal, for example.
Very tricky. A strict vegetarian who worked here once used pelleted chicken manure. But I couldn't help thinking about the lives and deaths of the poor factory farmed chicken that the manure almost certainly came from. Vinasse is a side product of the sugar beet industry and used in some composts but I've never seen it for sale and can't vouch for it's vegetarian credentials.
Seaweed makes excellent plant food, but it's mostly trace elements rather than NPK as such. Comfrey makes excellent plant food and if you have some space you can grow your own. Finally, nitrogen fixing plants like peas and beans don't need feeding. Others like onions need very little. Growing a leguminous green manure on bare soil will fix nitrogen in the soil too.
At some point the whole "organic movement" seemed to jump from the desire to inform people about optimal ways of gardening, to condemning people for not gardening the way they do. In our polarized society we are desperate to seek out allies, and spiteful to those whose practices and viewpoints don't match ours closely enough. I would suggest labeling yourself a "happy gardener" and leave the line drawing to those more interested in winning debates.
I used to use pelleted chicken manure – it's convenient, then I began to think about the battery chickens (I am vegetarian). I now use a certified organic (yes ;~) fertiliser, but in tiny amounts for the roses. Which are not poisoned in any way. The aphids feed ladybirds and feathered birds. The snails feed our tabakrolletjie snakes.
is ferric phosphate a natural rock/mineral? Organic in the sense of from nature, not man-made?