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Soil protection
The use of chemical fertilisers and conventional ploughing tends to degrade and exhaust top soil, making it more prone to erosion. Synthetic fertilisers exhaust the soil of humus. Without humus, water tends to run off rather than seep downward. Topsoil is carried away, decreasing the productivity of the land, and thereby encouraging the use of more fertiliser!

Organic growers know that healthy soil is the vital ingredient for their success. They value and respect the soil as the medium that provides the nutrients that the plants need in order to survive, and continually add organic matter to the soil (compsot), rotate crops, plant a variety of trees in their fields, use intercropping techniques, and have fallow periods allowing the soil to regenerate.

Organic farms have been shown to lose up to 4 times less soil per year than conventional farms.

Reduction of water and air pollution
Organic growing contributes to the overall quality of our rivers, lakes, groundwater and air by avoiding the use of any synthetic fertilizers or persistant pesticides. They also try and minimise greenhouse gas emissions (they don’t burn waste, for example).

Organic growers have to demonstrate to their auditor that they have a long-term strategy in place to minimise the potential harm of their agricultural practices to the acquatic environment.

Only around 10% of the pesticides applied to conventional crops hit the pest they are targeting. The other 90% end up in our water, air, and soil! Conventional growers also use chemical fertilisers that end up in our water ways and contribute to algal blooms in rivers and lakes, contamination of groundwater with nitrites, and the eutrophication of our waterways!.

The NZ Ministry for the Environment’s State of the Environment 1997 (7.37) report says: "Because it extends over half of New Zealand’s land area, agriculture dominates the middle and lower catchments of most streams and rivers. In the course of each year, significant parts of these catchments are defecated on by millions of farm animals, sprayed with fertilisers and pesticides, and rained on. As a result, tonnes of faecal matter, nutrients (i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus), and sediment are washed into surface waters, while nutrients and other contaminants leach into groundwaters. Agricultural non-point sources are still the main cause of water pollution, accounting for 75 percent of the total nitrogen loading to surface waters."

Biodiversity
Rachel Carsons’s classic book "Silent Spring" alerted of the dangers and widespread destruction of wildlife due to the use of pesticides and other chemicals back in 1962.

A recent report from The UK Soil Association comparing organic and non-organic farms found that organic farms had 3 times as many non-pest butterflies in crop areas, 5 times as many spiders, 44% more birds in autumn and winter and 5 times as many wild plants. So organic farms are not silent in spring, but buzzing with wildlife not found on conventional farms.

Organic growers also encourage biodiversity by growing different plant varieties, including heritage and heirloom varieties. These are old plant seeds that are not grown commercially any more because one or more of their characteristics (colour, shape, etc) did not appeal or suit modern growing and distribution channels. Since 1920 we have lost around 90% of our vegetable seed and around 85% of the fruit varieties in NZ.