The History of Organic Farming

Organic is often framed as "alternative agriculture" but it has actually been the norm for thousands of years.  Here in the United States, there are lots of guides to organic agriculture, from when organic was conventional, before the advent of farming chemicals and an industrial food system. 

Instead of reinventing the wheel, check out these old resources: at Organic Roots.

"Organic Roots is an electronic collection of historic United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publications related to organic agriculture.  The collection contains almost 800 documents published before 1942 (before synthetic chemicals became widely used) that contain state-of-the-art information and data that is still very pertinent for today's agriculture.  Access to this data is intended to provide growers with new ideas on crop production without chemicals, as well as help researchers conserve scarce resources by avoiding unintended duplication."

Check out the database here: http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=2&tax_level=2&tax_subject=288&level3_id=0&level4_id=0&level5_id=0&topic_id=2503&&placement_default=0

Compost is an ancient fertilizer, and much more conventional than synthetic fertilizer.