Organic
Organic production systems are those designed to produce optimum quantities of food of a quality acceptable to consumers by using management practices which aim to avoid the use of agrochemical inputs and which minimise damage to the environment and wildlife.
Organic crops are grown using natural techniques like crop rotations and resistant varieties. Only a small number of pesticides can be used on organic crops. These are largely derived from natural sources. Organic food must be free from any genetically modified (GM) material.
European regulations lay down precisely how crops must be grown to be called "organic". The same standard applies across the European Community. In each country a body is responsible for monitoring the standard. In the UK it is UKROFS, the UK Register of Organic Food Standards.
Natural Pesticides
Chemical substances, pesticides, have been used in agriculture for centuries. The Romans used sulphur as an insecticide and the Greeks and Chinese used arsenic. The Greeks burnt thyme as a household insecticide and various plant extracts and natural materials such as dung, urine, ashes and mud have all been used. Simple chemicals like salt, used to kill moss on paths, and copper sulphate, used as a fungicide on leaves, also have a long history of use.
Natural extracts of plants like derris, which contains the insecticide rotenone, and pyrethrum plants (Chrysanthemums) which contain pyrethrins, developed in the mid-nineteenth century, are still used as is nicotine, extracted from tobacco plants.