The idea of organic farming is to conduct well with environmental protection, respect natural ecology, and conserve energy rather than merely staying with the notion of myth of “free from residual agricultural fertilizer.” The farming of organic rice refers to the process of farming on unpolluted land, using pure water sources, and the farming process is done according to the criteria of organic agricultural production, absolute free from using agricultural pesticide, chemical fertilizer, and production adjuster for cultivation and harvest. Furthermore, it would also work according to the processing procedures of dehydration, storage, and grinding of CAS quality rice. And the processing procedures for grinding, storage, and package of organic rice have to be separated from the production line of regular rice in order to comply with the definition of organic rice. In addition, based on the even more stricter sense of certification overseas, the farm of organic rice must be free from the use of any chemicals for at least three years (for instances, agricultural chemical, herbicide, bactericide, and antibiotic), while strict rotation farming is enforced. Therefore, the notion of organic rice is not merely free from residual agricultural chemical, but rather to embrace the entire agricultural production procedures within. Starting from seeding, it would have to be organic, then from cultivation, planting, production, storage, processing, transportation to cooking, and there cannot be a least of contamination. For the time being, the organic agriculture of Taiwan can, basically, be considered as within the scope of pre-organic – using less agricultural chemical. As a matter of a fact, for organic certification of the world there is not so-called pre-organic product – using less agricultural chemical.
When cultivate organic rice, the organic fertilizer has to be used to provide the needed nutrient for the crop, while field rotation crop and manual management are employed to control grass of the field. Also, tiny-net for incoming water is used in order to avoid grass seeds from coming. For the field pest control, herbal mixture of tea or manpower is used to prevent ampullarium insularum, and bacillus thuringiensis against pest and inset. Since Taiwan is located in sub-tropic area, it is mostly with high temperature and humidity and is quite difficult to control pest. Furthermore, as its land of farming is tiny and small, the size is not up to economic scale for farming; under small and intensive farming, the cultivation of organic rice is, indeed, a tough industry. With the aging of farming population, the industry, which needs massive manpower and time to tend to, is encountered with inevitable difficulty for its a prior cultivation and posthumous implementation. Also, harvest of organic farming would usually reap 60% of regular farming, rendering difficulty to the plantation of organic rice in realistic and economic terms. Not to mention there would be media reports from time to time about “organic rice being polluted by neighboring field,” or the ambiguous statement of so-called “plant nutriment mixed chemical fertilizer.” Of the these practical problems, it is difficult for farmer of organic rice to elaborate, and if relevant government authorities would not help to investigate it would only leave the general consumers to linger in loss in the myth of what exactly is organic rice.
» Read more: The myth of organic rice