History of Organic Farming - Twenty-first Century

Twenty-first Century

Throughout this history, the focus of agricultural research and the majority of publicized scientific findings has been on chemical, not organic, farming. This emphasis has continued to biotechnologies like genetic engineering. One recent survey of the UK's leading government funding agency for bioscience research and training indicated 26 GM crop projects, and only one related to organic agriculture. This imbalance is largely driven by agribusiness in general, which, through research funding and government lobbying, continues to have a predominating effect on agriculture-related science and policy.

Agribusiness is also changing the rules of the organic market. The rise of organic farming was driven by small, independent producers and by consumers. In recent years, explosive organic market growth has encouraged the participation of agribusiness interests. As the volume and variety of "organic" products increases, the viability of the small-scale organic farm is at risk, and the meaning of organic farming as an agricultural method is ever more easily confused with the related but separate areas of organic food and organic certification.

In Havana, Cuba, a unique situation has made organic food production a necessity. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and its economic support in 1989, Cuba has had to produce food in creative ways like instituting the world’s only state-supported infrastructure to support urban food production. Called organopónicos, the city is able to provide an ever increasing amount of its produce organically.