Organic pesticides

 
Organic production systems are designed to produce optimum quantities of food, of a quality that is acceptable to consumers, by using management practices that avoid the use of agrochemical inputs, and minimise damage to the environment and wildlife.

Organic crops are grown using natural techniques like crop rotations and resistant varieties.

Only a small number of pesticides can be used on organic crops; these are largely derived from natural sources. Organic food must be free from any genetically modified (GM) material.

European regulations stipulate precisely how crops must be grown in order to be called "organic". This standard applies across the European Community. In each country a body is responsible for monitoring the standard. In the UK it is UKROFS, the UK Register of Organic Food Standards.
 
To ensure anything calling itself organic meets the standard, businesses using the description must be registered and inspected. This applies throughout the food chain; from the farmer to the processor and packer. UKROFS has approved 8 inspection bodies in to do this. 

 

They are:

 
Bodies must enforce the European standard, but can also add further standards of their own. The Soil Association is the best-known organic approval body, and claims to set the highest standards. Some of the bodies specialise, for example Food Certification (Scotland) Ltd. deals with organic certification of farmed salmon. Unless the standards of the inspection body are met, the food will not be able to claim it is organic. 
 

Natural Pesticides

Chemical substances, pesticides, have been used in agriculture for centuries. The Romans used sulphur as an insecticide, and the Greeks and Chinese used arsenic. The Greeks burnt thyme as a household insecticide and various plant extracts and natural materials such as dung, urine, ashes and mud have all been used. Simple chemicals like salt, used to kill moss on paths, and copper sulphate, used as a fungicide on leaves, also have a long history of use.
 
Natural extracts of plants like derris, which contains the insecticide rotenone, and pyrethrum plants (Chrysanthemums) that contain pyrethrins, developed in the mid-nineteenth century, are still used, as is nicotine extracted from tobacco plants.

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