PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGICAL FARMING
- Test and balance your soils and feed the crop a balanced, supplemented diet.
- Use fertilizers that do the least damage to soil life and plant roots.
- Apply pesticides and herbicides responsibly while relying on regenerative management practices to reach maximum genetic potential.
- Create maximum plant diversity by using green manure crops and tight rotations.
- Manage the decay of organic materials and the balance of soil, air and water.
- Feed the soil using carbon from compost, green manures, livestock manures and crop residues.
What Is The Deal with GMOs
Biological Farming is a holistic farm management approach that focuses on building a foundation in soil health and creating a balance between traditional methods and newer advances in modern agriculture.
Biological farming is best understood as a practical middle ground that combines the strongest principles of organic, conventional, and modern scientific agriculture into a system focused on long-term soil health, crop productivity, animal health, and environmental stewardship. Rather than following rigid ideological rules, biological farming emphasizes working with natural biological processes while still using modern knowledge and technology responsibly.
What Is Biological Farming?
Biological farming is an agricultural approach that prioritizes:
Healthy living soil
Balanced plant nutrition
Strong microbial activity
Efficient nutrient cycling
Reduced dependence on synthetic inputs
Long-term sustainability and profitability
It recognizes that healthy soil biology drives healthy crops, healthy livestock, and ultimately healthy people.
Unlike purely organic systems, biological farming is not necessarily defined by certification rules. Unlike purely conventional systems, it does not rely heavily on synthetic fertilizers and chemicals as the primary solution to agricultural challenges.
Instead, it blends the best tools and practices from multiple farming philosophies.
Does the thought of GMOs scare you or cause you concern? If they do, you are not alone. Many people are concerned about them. However, learning about what GMOs are and their benefits might provide a new insight and opinion about them.
We are not here to judge anyone's thoughts on GMOs. However, we do ask that your decisions regarding them be based on actual research on the topic as opposed to someone's marketing ploy, TikTok, or other social media posting. We want to give you information to consider so you can understand why we are not concerned about the food safety of GMOs.
What if I told you that genetic engineering of our food has been going on for centuries? Have you heard of "natural selection" or "hybridization"? These are forms of genetic engineering. Humans have been selecting the "best" since the beginning and have therefore been genetically modifying everything they have worked with since then. Today's modern GMOs use biotechnology to do this process in a much more controlled and efficient manner.
What are the benefits of GMOs?
- Increased food production - Let's face it, not everyone wants to be a farmer. Therefore, those of us who enjoy this lifestyle need tools to produce more food for you. GMOs allow for higher yields, reduced stress from insects and disease, and better production in droughts or harsh winters.
- Reduced pesticide use - Contrary to popular belief, GMOs actually allow farmers to reduce their use of pesticides or switch to safer, less toxic pesticides. This is where GMOs support principles of biological farming. Here is an example:
- One of the common GMO traits in corn is the addition of a BT protein to the corn plant. A human's digestive system is acidic and can easily digest proteins of all types, including the BT protein now present in approximately 90% of the corn grown in the US. A very damaging crop pest is corn rootworm. A rootworm's digestive system is alkaline and therefore can't digest a BT protein. If it takes a bite of the GMO corn plant’s root, the rootworm will get sick and die. Before the GMO technology for this pest was available, farmers had to apply a toxic insecticide to the soil to ensure the rootworm was killed. Unfortunately, this meant that good insects and biologicals were also killed. By using GMOs, farmers target only the bad pests and allow the survival of all the good critters.
- Improved nutritional value - Certain GMO crops are developed to address nutritional deficiencies in countries facing challenges with poverty, nutritional health, and other health issues from a general lack of nutrition. An example is Golden Rice, which contains beta-carotene that the body converts to vitamin A. This helps reduce blindness associated with vitamin A deficiency in developing countries.
- Environmental sustainability - GMOs allow farmers to reduce tillage and soil erosion, lower fuel usage, and have better water efficiency in some of their crops.
Common Concerns About GMOs:
- GMOs are unsafe to eat - Major scientific organizations worldwide have concluded that approved GMO foods currently on the market are generally as safe as conventional foods.
Organizations supporting this conclusion include:
World Health Organization
National Academy of Sciences
American Medical Association - GMOs harm the environment - This is a valid concern if GMOs are not properly managed. GMOs are a tool and the technology itself is not inherently harmful; however, improper management practices can be.
- GMOs increase herbicide use - Actually, as explained above, they can be used to significantly reduce herbicide use. It is management practices that would increase herbicide usage.
- GMOs are "Unnatural" - Humans have altered crops genetically for thousands of years through selective breeding. Modern corn looks dramatically different from its wild ancestor, teosinte, due to centuries of human-directed genetic change. GMOs make changes more precise and targeted than traditional breeding methods.
Further Research
Please take some time to do your own research on this topic so that you can make your own informed decision. Here are some sources to get you started