Is Sustainable agriculture and organic agriculture the same?

Question

Sorry for askin too many question guys...my research paper topic isn't one that i know too well.

Answer 1

They do not mean  the same thing, but could be the same.  

Sustainable agriculture simply means agriculture that one can sustain a living for himself and his family without having to                                                     resort to outside income.  The farm supplies all of the family's needs and enough extra to sell or barter for that which the farm can't supply.

Organic farming means farming using natural means only.  No chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  Probably need to add no genetically modified crops to that definition today.  Use of animal manure and compost for fertilizer, biological control of insects, no growth hormones in animal products, etc. are used in organic farming.

Many organic farms are sustainable agriculture, while many are not.  The same way, many standard farms are sustainable agriculture but many are not.

Answer 2

"Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals--environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity... Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."....http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/...

What this page is saying is that sustainability is looking at the whole system - people, animals, water, air, land, plants, our environmental system, our economic system, and our social system - as a whole, to devise a system that will work now and far into the future. Otherwise the human race will probably die off within the next few centuries, possibly taking much of the other life-forms on earth with it (global warming, pollution, over-crowding, etc).

So yes, I would say that is a very different concept than organic. (Eat organic!! Yay!)

Answer 3

No, they are two different concepts.  Organic agriculture is a system that uses no synthesized fertilizers or pesticides, no genetically modified seeds, and no food irradiation, among other things.  Sustainable agriculture is a term used to describe a "responsible" farming system that will result in stable or improved yields over the long term.  There are no regulations what type of crops can be grown or what can be applied to them, as you see in organic systems.  Generally, however, sustainable agriculture will usually involve crop rotation with a legume and/or  leaving certain fields fallow in a  rotation.  Additionally, fertilizer inputs are generally closely looked at to ensure that adequate amounts of nutrient are added back to the soil to replace what the plants use.  Hope this helps a little...

Answer 4

The two terms do overlap, but sustainable agriculture is not always the same as organic ag. To use the term "organic" in advertising your products, your farm has to be "certified organic" by the USDA. Roughly, this means that you cannot use most chemical pesticides/herbicides/etc., growth hormones, antibiotics and the like. Feed given to organically-raised livestock has to be from a certified organic farm.

Essentially, organic means that few, if any, ag chemicals are used in production. But there's no rules against raising organic beef cattle in a feed lot or keeping organic egg laying hens in battery cages. Some farmers object to organic certification because they feel the term is too ambiguous or requires an excessive amount of red tape.

There's really no clear-cut definition of "sustainable agriculture" right now. Generally "sustainable" means a style of farm management that doesn't harm the environment, that treats livestock humanely, that provides decent living conditions for the farm family, and that pays a liveable income to the producer.

Answer 5

they are different.

In organic agriculture no chemicals are used except the chemicals that are in nature like rock phosphate, copper sulphate, sulphur etc.

All the inputs like manures, pesticides are always from organic source i.e. products of animals or plants.

In case of sustainable agriculture, it is integration of all good methods including organic inputs.

Answer 6

Sustainable systems may or may not use organic methods to accomplish the goal but in general it is the organic solution to the problem of sustainable agriculture that inevitably will win out. One can use 100% organic methods to produce a crop but can over even a short time ruin the growing environment. Sustainable agriculture looks at a system and environment with a wider scope than just the production of an organic product. Sustainable agriculture incorporates a wider view of a system with a longer time frame.