Organic Producers Achieve the Impossible – Again!

By Brenda Frick, Ph.D.

"I’m sorry, but it is impossible to grow saskatoons organically.” I recently heard an expert in saskatoon propagation tell this to an audience of potential fruit growers. If she was right, several organic producers are doing the impossible. They are nurturing saskatoon bushes organically, and they are producing and marketing organic saskatoons. And of course, saskatoons grew across the prairies and were an abundant and vital wild crafted food before the introduction of agricultural chemicals.

Saskatoons may not be the easiest choice for the organic fruit grower. Being native to the prairies, saskatoons have local pests and diseases. How can organic producers manage a system that includes a pest prone species like saskatoons? In some years, pests can severely limit saskatoon production. In other years, the pests are limited by weather and by their own pests. When insecticides are used, they can eliminate the beneficial insects that prey on the pests. In organic production, the producer seeks a balance, and tries to favour the beneficial insects.

Diversity is a key principle in organic pest management. Pests are more likely to be a problem when large areas are planted to a single species. Planting a variety of fruits has many benefits. Non-native fruits such as dwarf sour cherries or blue honeysuckles may be easier for organic production in the prairies. For these plants, there is the possibility of introducing the fruit tree without its native pests. In a mixed planting, the species that aren’t attractive to a particular pest may reduce that pest’s ability to find its host (like hiding the ice cream behind the broccoli). Having several fruit species reduces the risk of a total crop loss from pests if they do become a problem. It also reduces the risks from weather if the different fruits have different flowering and fruiting times.

Different fruits can also spread the work load over time. Maintaining a variety of fruit and non-fruit species can further benefit the orchard by increasing the number of beneficial insects, and by reducing the vigour of pest species. For instance, small flowered weeds in shelterbelts can harbour parasitic wasps that reduce caterpillar numbers. Alfalfa in alleyways can reduce the number of grasshoppers in future generations.

On the prairies we usually benefit from cold winters, dry summers and lots of distance between orchards. The weather reduces our list of potential diseases and pests, and the distance makes it less likely that problems will spread among orchards. These factors give us an advantage over major fruit growing areas of Canada. Organic fruit production, even saskatoon production, on the prairies may be filled with challenges, but it need not be impossible.

Saskatoons are not the first crop organic farmers have been told they could not grow. Organic farmers are seeking damages from Monsanto and Bayer for genetic contamination that resulted in the loss of canola as an organic crop. Expert witnesses for the chemical companies testified that organic farmers did not have the agronomic tools and skills needed to grow canola successfully. Never-the-less, many organic farmers had grown canola before widespread GM contamination of the crop, and they had deemed it a success. Like saskatoons, canola was a crop with challenges, including a number of potential pests. But through a systems approach and a diversity of techniques, organic producers were able to do what conventional thinkers thought was impossible.

Some conventional farmers consider organic to be impossible for them. The most frequent concern is that weed problems would overwhelm them without herbicides. But here again, organic farmers are finding that the problems don’t make organic production impossible. Ideally, rotations and good agronomy keep weeds in balance. When weeds get out of balance, a variety of techniques are possible. Some farmers will simply turn an extremely weedy crop under, or cut it for green feed. Some will plan an aggressive cropping sequence to bring the weeds under control in the coming years. Often organic farmers find their yields better than expected, despite their weeds.

Often organic production requires a shift in focus. When the focus is on the tools that are no longer available, going organic can seem an intimidating process. Redirecting focus to a long term systems approach to healthy food production can bring the impossible into reality.


Brenda Frick, Ph.D., P.Ag., is the Prairie Coordinator for the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at the College of Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan. She welcomes your comments at 306-966-4975 or via email at brenda.frick@usask.ca .


This article first appeared in The Western Producer, and is published here on the OACC website with permission.


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Posted September 2005