Alternative Agriculture Defined

"Alternative agriculture," "regenerative agriculture," and "organic farming" refer to similar but not identical sets of agricultural practices. The similarities are strong enough that for this discussion alternative agriculture can be taken to include the practices generally included under all three labels.

The most restrictive definition of alternative agriculture is that adopted by the Rodale organization.

By this definition alternative agriculture aims at self-sufficiency of the farm by minimizing the use of inputs obtained from off the farm and at elimination of "synthetic inputs"—that is, chemical pesticides and inorganic fertilizers in crop production and growth regulators and other chemicals in animal production. Weeds, insects, and diseases are managed through crop rotation, cultivation, and a variety of biological controls. Nutrients are provided by rotation of main crops with legumes and by return to the soil of crop residues, animal wastes, sewage sludge, and other forms of organic waste.

Other definitions of alternative agriculture are not as strict: they do not aim at complete self-sufficiency of the farm, and permit some limited use of inorganic fertilizers where organic nutrients are especially limited. They also permit limited use of pesticides to deal with emergency outbreaks of weed, disease or insect damage.

The USDA Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming (1980) provides such a less restrictive definition:

Organic farming "is a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives.

To the maximum extent feasible, organic farming systems rely upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, mechanical cultivation, mineral bearing rocks and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply plant nutrients, and to control insects, weeds and other pests."