For home gardening, it would seem that it is a matter of how pure one wants to be. However, including in a compost pile vegetable or fruit skins containing insect spray would definitely cause serious contamination.For commercial farms, does organic certification require that all compost or other so-called organic fertilizers and purchased soil, mulch, etc.,, be screened for chemical content?For home gardening, how can one be sure about the content of purchased soil, mulch, etc.?
for 'home' gardening.... DONT PURCHASE any soil, mulch etc.... make your own, then you'll KNOW what went into it.... as for commercial produce and what it contains.... don't be silly.... of course there's something in it or on it.... so don't use it.... commercial FARMS?....if they SELL produce labeled 'organic' they do not purchase anything for their gardens that is not already labeled organic.... it's the LAW.... now, as for organic gardening.....??.... don't let me get started.... you want organic?... take your self and go out into the middle of a old abandoned farmstead in Kansas , for example... plow over an acre there.... plant 'organic' seeds.... there ya go... one organic garden..... what you get FROM it is up to the rain gods and the bugs.... past that, you're doing something to it and it's no longer 'organic'..... that is one word that is so over-used and that has so many possible 'meanings' that it's useless in normal conversation..... I'd like to see it abolished.... either folks try so hard to attain it and can't get food from the garden or folks get all snobby and won't eat anything that wasn't raised that way and pay dearly for it (so how is it that they don't spend more money to buy pesticides and fertilizers to put on these plants, thus saving a BUNCH of money, but the produce costs so much MORE than the usual stuff???)....... and it's just all gonna turn to poop anyways!!!... I agree that chemical pesticides can harm both us and the environment!!... DDT showed us how we'd gone 'too far' with killing bugs.... nowadays, the smart folks use a little pyrethrin in emergency situations *from flowers...or some Neem *from a tree or soap..... and still, someone will claim these things are not 'organic'..... I'd like a twenty minute session inside a locked room with them!!.... how pure?.... wash the stuff before you eat it and you're doing the best thing you can!!!.....
No, it doesn't make your garden non-organic. Compost is an amazingly effective decomposition process. The bacteria and fungi that work to break down matter in compost can disassemble large molecules at the molecular level and are capable of reducing it to the elements involved or radically different and simpler compounds for most chemicals. Many pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are hydrocarbons and their origin is organic - that is they are made from the bodies of plants and animals that died eons ago. While it would not be a good idea to dump a load of pesticide or diesel onto your compost, the residues on veggies you eat will not cause a problem. A specialized composting process is used to clean up contaminated sites called bio-remediation. The EPA has done a number of studies using compost to clean up sites. they have even had great success with soil with TNT and other explosives in it. It is an effective way to clean up many of the areas of contamination we have to deal with. Commercial farms can use compost but I believe they are not allowed to bring in compost made from biosolids - sewage sludge. It isn't the human poop that is the problem in the biosolids, it is all the weird and not so wonderful things we flush down the toilet. Buying soil is not the best idea and I don't think the commercial organic growers can bring in soil without going through a recertification. Ideally you want to build the soil you have. There is one area that both home and commercial growers need to be wary of and that is bringing in material which may be contaminated with certain herbicides. Most herbicides breakdown but these three herbicides can cause serious long term problems - picloram, clopyralid and aminopyralid, I have a page on my website that gives more info on this issue.
i dont think so because it all rots into soil big farms use all kinds of stuff from animal parts to coal ash to, partical board saw-dust, and even human poo
