Organic farming in United States continues to increase by about 5% every year. This increase is driven by consumers choosing more organic produce at the grocery stores.
Here are some common reasons why many people choose organic products over conventional.
- To avoid pesticides used for crop growing.
- While genetically modified (GMO) crops may produce greater yields and are more resistant to diseases and applied chemicals, many consumers feel that is unnatural.
- Many consumers believe that organic products are more nutritious.
- Organic farming is known to regenerate ecosystems and the soil, while conventional farming strips the environment, destroying natural resources, and requires constant chemical supplement.
- Organic farming supports carbon sequestration, which helps to ease rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The primary benefit of organic crop farming versus conventional, is that it focuses on soil-based production with underlying principles of maintaining or improving soil health.
How AgNote can help with Organic Farming
Organic farming does come with its own challenges. To switch from conventional to organic farming is not a matter of simply turning off the chemical sprayer. Farmers must learn to manage soil nutrients without fertilizer, pest control without eliminating them and tackle weeds without herbicides. It really is a steep learning curve.
Organic farming also comes with some additional data tracking responsibilities.
AgNote can help to manage organic planting data.
- Tag organic plantings. Tags will show up in many reports.
- Detailed farm task tracking.
- All plantings tagged as Organic, will be clearly visible on the plantings list with slightly green background color.
- On field map, all Organic fields will be clearly visible by having a thick, green border around them.
- Save files, such as product USDA certifications or product test results for crop inputs.
- Each planting input can have files like USDA Certification attached to them.
