ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND INTEGRATED PRODUCTION: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Abstract

Warranties in food supply were a priority for most societies after the Second World War. As a result, research programs and production systems were focused on yield improvement that up to now has characterized conventional agriculture production systems. Worldwide gains in productivity resulted from such effort, known as the Green Revolution, were immense, but in many ways such yield gains were not attained without very serious damages to the environment and the health of field workers and consumers. More and more conscious consumers are directing their choices taking into account the social, environmental and health aspects of production. Responding to such demands, two agricultural movements were observed: the Organic Agriculture and the Integrated Production systems. Today, the most quality-demanding markets have official regulations with the objective of assuring consumers of those quality aspects that cannot be verified in the final product. Therefore, both Organic Agriculture and Integrated Production systems are developing norms and standards for process certification. Although the development of these two set of standards are oriented to the same segment of the market, they differ in their degrees of commitment to the social, environmental and health related aspects of food production.