Development Of Organic Food In The United States

According to Merriam-Webster, organic is defined as both, “of, relating to, or derived from living organisms” as well as a plant or animal produced without the use of chemicals or pesticides. The term “organic” is often seen by most when they shop at a store for food. There are many things that come to mind when thinking of organic products. For example, many people think that foods with an “organic” label are more expensive and better for you nutrient-wise than non-organic foods.

However many of these connotations are not necessarily true when digging deeper into what something is when it truly is organic. For a food to be organic it has to be from a living organism, produced a certain way, and sold following the guidelines of the United States Department of Agriculture. With the advances in technology over the past two hundred years, growing organic plants and animals has not changed greatly. Farmers during the 1800s worked very hard to keep their soil rich and healthy to allow crops to prosper. One thing farmers did throughout the 1800s and early 1900s was practicing crop rotation. Crop rotation keeps farmland soil nice and healthy by allowing it to not become baren of much needed nutrients. The practice of crop rotation has to do with, “planting different crops on a single plot of land over time”(Eating Organic). Later in the 1940s, however, the farming community switched to using a pesticide known as DDT. With the discovery of this pesticide and many others, farmers all around started to spray their fields with the insect-killing-spray.

After pesticide was distributed and utilized by many farmers, chemical fertilizers also became well distributed and used. These fertilizers were a way to inject land with nutrients to ease farming and made crop rotation look unconventional. The use of fertilizers and pesticides ment less manual workers and more crops, which meant more profit. Most farmers adjusted to this method of using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, however, “ a small group of farmers continued to farm organically”(Eating Organic). This small group of farmers wanted to avoid these nasty chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This group who continued on as before became excluded from the popular group of farmers known as conventional farmers (Eating Organic). It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that there was a change in society in the United States. Young men and women known as hippies had a focus on, “music, art and doing things naturally”(Eating Organic).