Stewardship of human resources includes consideration of social responsibilities such as working and living conditions of laborers, needs of rural communities, and consumer health and safety issues. Making the transition to sustainable agriculture is a process. Each step, even small steps toward the goal of sustainable agriculture, will make a difference. It follows practices that attempt to replicate nature. It strives to enhance biological activity in the soil, minimize pollution of water and air and produce foods that are absolutely safe to eat, free of toxic chemical residues or additives.
Organic farms tend to be more diversified than conventional farms.
Organic farms tend to grow a number of crops, rotating them from field to field, alternating them with cover crops planted to replenish nitrogen back in the soil. By contrast, conventional farming usually grows a specific crop year after year on the same acreage, depleting the nutrients in the soil. Deficiencies are compensated for by the application of chemical fertilizers. In conventional farming, weeds are controlled by herbicides and insects by pesticides, leading to the possibility of food and groundwater contamination and air pollution. I suspect when the USDA finishes processing the recent inflow of comments on the subject, we will have an official definition.