Back L. Bullard
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
Full Paper (PDF File: 40KB)
Abstract
From its inception there was an awareness within the organic agriculture movement that microorganisms play an important role in the farming ecosystem; however, the emphasis in the West has been mainly on ensuring that production methods preserve and maintain these life forms, rather than on their direct utilization. One notable exception is the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which is widely used in various forms (such as pulverized for foliar application or injection directly into the plants) for control of caterpillars. Rhizobium is used to enhance nitrogen fixation. Obviously microorganisms continue to be used for baking bread, brewing beer, making wine and yoghurt, and many other types of food processing, as they have been for millenia.
The IFOAM Basic Standards for Organic Agriculture and Processing permit the use of microorganisms in organic farming and food processing, as long as they are not genetically engineered. The rejection of genetic engineering derives from the value that the organic movement places on the integrity and connectedness that characterizes living systems. In our view, genetic engineering is inherently contrary to the holistic approach because it is based on breaking the integrity of living organisms at the most fundamental level -the level of their genetic makeup.
The developers of Effective Microorganisms have given every assurance that this technology is not based on any form of genetic engineering. Nonetheless, there remains some resistance to the use of EM in particular in some parts of the organic movement. This paper looks into the source of these misgivings and offers some suggestions for overcoming them.