Is organic farming really just a fad? Is it just a marketing scheme to raise prices for produce and other food items that we can get at major grocery stores for less?

Ironically, all of the farming practices prior to the 20th century were organic farming. The term "organic farming" was coined in 1939 by an English agriculturalist and author, Walter Ernest Christopher James, 4th Baron Northbourne. He conceptualized the farm as an organism having a holistic and equally-balanced approach. During the early 20th century, synthetic pesticides were introduced to the farming industry which led to the organic farming revolution in the 1940's known as the "Green Revolution" to counteract against the industrialization of agriculture.

Today the spectrum has flipped as food corporations have emerged. Large chemical companies like Monsanto have played a major role in the production of synthetic and genetically modified crops and pesticides. Organic foods now only account for 1 - 2% of total food sales worldwide. Large food companies and farms that have jumped on the non-organic food van are buying out small farmers and in some cases forcing them out of business. The government now provides subsidies and are lenient to requirements and business practices of the industrial food companies. At the same time, the government has made it difficult for organic farmers to manage their farms by imposing stricter guidelines and paperwork to document their organic farming processes on a regular basis.

As food consumers, our choices on our food sources and quality of food that we purchase for our families will soon be relegated completely to genetically modified produce and hormone and antibiotic injected meat products if we continue to have large industrial food companies and the government dictate what we eat.

There is hope. More and more people are starting to understand and appreciate the quality and flavor of organically grown food. Local urban farms are starting to sprout around major cities to reclaim unused land as a source for local neighborhoods in acquiring organically grown produce. The world organic market has been growing by 20% each year since the early 1990's. It is up to each community to support their local farmers to keep the Green Revolution alive.