Organic farming

Agricultural production which typically places a higher emphasis on environmental and wildlife protection and, with regard to livestock production, on measures that are supposedly animal welfare friendly. Organic production aims at more holistic production management systems for crops and livestock, emphasizing on-farm management practices over off-farm inputs. This involves avoiding, or largely reducing, the use of synthetic chemicals such as inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, medicinal products, replacing them, wherever possible, with cultural, biological and mechanical methods. Organic producers explicitly aim to develop an allegedly healthier, fertile soil by growing and rotating a mixture of crops and using clover to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. The production of genetically-modified (GM) crops and their use in animal feed is banned. In the context of European Union (EU) statistics, farming is considered to be organic if it complies with Regulation 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products. The detailed rules for the implementation of this Regulation are laid down in Regulation 889/2008.