Section 3 : Québec Reference Standards

Introduction

Products called "organic" or products described in similar terms are products of "organic farming". This is an agricultural method based on agricultural management practices aimed at creating ecosystems capable of ensuring sustained productivity along with weed and pest control through a diversity of interdependent forms of life, recycling of plant and animal wastes, crop selection and rotation, and water management. With this method, soil fertility is maintained and improved by a system that maximizes soil activity in order to provide plants and animals with essential nutrients and also to conserve soil resources. Insects and diseases are controlled by encouraging a balanced host-predator relationship and an increase in beneficial insect populations, and through biological and crop controls as well as mechanical elimination of pests or damaged plant parts.