# How are "organic" pesticides created **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-organic-pesticides-created/833039 "2019-04-25T15:38:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-organic-pesticides-created/833039/7 "2019-04-25T22:44:31Z")
Certified organic farmer here. Guess it’s time to quit lurking and log in. > [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > In the U.S., “organic” when applied to food is a [legal term](https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/organic-standards) with very precise meanings depending on the context. The legal definition does not tie out to the scientific term. That’s accurate. Words in English very often have more than one meaning. The word “organic” as used in “organic chemical” has a different meaning than the word “organic” as used in “organic farming”. > [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > I believe what qualifies as an organic fertilizer or pesticide differs between crops Probably not the way I think you mean that. Some things are permissible for some uses and not others (you can clean your tools with rubbing alcohol, for instance, but you couldn’t dump it all over your fields.) Some things are only sensible for use on some crops, and using even a permissible material in an unreasonable fashion may not be allowed. And, at least in the USA and probably elsewhere, agricultural pesticides (the term includes insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides) are labeled only for use on specific crops and to control specific pests. This isn’t limited to organic agriculture; but following organic rules doesn’t exempt farmers from general rules, so we can also only use a substance labeled for the crop and pest. (To further complicate matters, this in the USA may vary by state.) But if something’s a prohibited substance for organic use, then it’s prohibited for organic use for all crops. > [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > I’m also interested in whether those organic crop treatments are actually safer or better for the environment than alternative treatments but I’m too lazy to do the research. I don’t think any one person is capable of doing the research, lazy or not. The potential interactions of tens of thousands of new compounds being added to the ecosystem not only with the crop and pest they’re supposed to be used on, but also with each other, with a very large number of other species, with the atmosphere, etc. is, to put it mildly, a huge subject. There are people working on it, of course. But another point is that it isn’t just that organic growers use different crop treatments; it’s also that we use crop treatments differently. I’ve used copper fungicides, for instance, one year out of over thirty years farming; and then on one crop (tomatoes, in a very bad late blight year) that took up only a very small area of the farm. In order to use any pesticide, even one on the approved list, organic farmers are supposed to show that they’re using other methods – resistant varieties, timing of planting, spacing and pruning of crops for better airflow, encouragement of beneficial insects, et cetera – and are only resorting to the pesticide when/if those don’t work. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-organic-pesticides-created/833039)._