Organic farming is an agricultural production system defined and regulated at Community level by EC regulations no. 834/2007 and EC n. 889/2008.
It does not use synthetic chemicals (fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides) to fertilize the land, to fight weeds, animal parasites and plant diseases.
It also prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
It uses traditional, essentially preventive practices, selecting local species resistant to disease and intervening with suitable cultivation techniques.
The main ones are:
- crop rotation avoids cultivating the same plant for several consecutive seasons on the same land, so as to prevent parasites and weeds from adapting and proliferating in a favorable environment for them. At the same time, the nutrients of the soil are used more rationally and less intensively;
- the planting of hedges and trees recreates the landscape, houses the natural predators of parasites and acts as a physical barrier against external pollution;
- intercropping consists in cultivating different plants at the same time, one unwelcome to the parasites of the other.
In organic farming, natural fertilizers are used, such as manure, other composted organic substances (cuttings, etc.) and green manure.
Green manure consists in incorporating specially sown plants into the soil, such as clover or mustard, thus enriching it with substances useful for increasing its fertility.
For the protection of crops, if necessary, we intervene with natural substances of vegetable or mineral origin expressly authorized and listed one by one in the European regulation: these are plant extracts, rock flour or natural minerals, used to correct the structure and chemical characteristics of the soil or to defend crops from cryptogams, but also from useful insects that prey on parasites.
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