What counts as organic?

We're all increasingly aware of the endless number of chemicals that can go into our bodies now and with so many food scares, it's no wonder that more people are scrambling to get organic food. But, what exactly counts as organic? Are they just food that has no toxic chemicals? Or is it food specially grown and nurtured in a certain way?

Wikipedia defines organic food as "foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.^"

But it really isn't that simple. For those of us who are trying to build a self-sufficient garden, what are some of the things we need to take note?

So in my search for the definition to what counts as organic produce, I tried to focus on details that matter to gardening organic food at home. I came across a couple of really interesting articles. One of them is an article by Andy Hamilton on Organic Container Gardening. Hamilton gives us some advice on the things we can use when trying to grow food in limited space. Using hanging baskets and going vertical helps. He also suggests growing plants that will last and can be harvested over a long time so we don't waste space. Jackie French's Self-sufficiency on a balcony gives us detailed steps on how to build our little self-sufficient garden right on the balcony. Some steps include choosing the right pots, planting the right plants that will eventually yield us enough produce for our salads and daily green intake.

Perhaps I should consider whether to keep this pandan plant since I hardly ever use it for cooking...?

None of the posts went very much into talking about care of the plants - what should we use to keep those pests away? What do we do when our plants grow ill? What kind of fertilizers should we use? In fact, what soil do we plant our food in? And it all relates back to the idea of what defines organic food.

In some of my previous posts, I introduced homemade pesticides and even home composting. For us to move closer to having an organic home-grown food on a scale way way small, I think it's realistic for us to consider making everything, right down to homemade soil/fertilizer. Of course to start, we could simply pay more attention to the products we buy for our garden - is this organic soil? Can we get any natural pesticide? What kinds of fertilizers are chemical-free?

I hope this post has helped us resolve a little more to build our self-sustaining garden, even if we have very limited space. Even if we only care a little for our health and what goes into our bodies, let the harvest be our motivation; the taste of food from our own garden will definitely be worth the effort!