LEWIS CREEK FARM
Ecologically Grown

The Philosophy of Our Choice to Grow Ecologically

"Conventional" when used in contrast to "Organic", implies a farming system in which no attempt is made to minimize pesticide use. Lewis Creek Farm is not conventional.

By contrast, "Organic" implies a system that rejects all chemicals because some, even many, but not all, have proven harmful. Lewis Creek Farm is not organic.

I assume that you use asprin when you suffer from a headache, and penicillin when faced with an infection. Most of us do, but you don’t take asprin or penicillin routinely to avoid a headache or an infection, and you certainly don’t take morphine for a headache, though it would certainly kill the pain.

Similarly we have not rejected all chemical use at Lewis Creek Farm, but use them sparingly and judiciously. The result is that most of our crops are grown with no pesticides at all.
Of those that are sprayed the majority get sprays that are approved for organic production.
In the few cases where we do use chemical sprays, we use those with the lowest possible toxicity to humans.

The net result is that even on crops where we have some use of chemical sprays, such as carrots and potatoes our actual usage is way below what is the norm for conventional production.

For example take carrots:
The norm for conventional production of carrots is 1 herbicide application, 3 fungicide applications and 1 insecticide application.
At Lewis Creek Farm we only make 1 herbicide application to carrots, all the other problems are controlled through preventative measures.

On potatoes the norm for conventional production is 2 herbicide applications, 3-4 fungicide applications, and 4 insecticide applications, none of which are approved for organic production. At Lewis Creek Farm, we only make 1 application of 1 insecticide which is not approved for organic production. That’s a big difference.