( Mother Nature Network ) -- The phrase `` organic farming '' was coined in 1940 by Lord Northbourne , a British author and Olympic athlete who helped launch the organic movement . Joined by fellow organic pioneers like J.I . Rodale , Lady Eve Balfour and Albert Howard , he championed farms as natural ecosystems , and railed against chemical fertilizers and pesticides . `` The farm itself must have a biological completeness , '' he wrote . `` It must be a living entity ... which has within itself a balanced organic life . '' Those words still resonate with many farmers and shoppers today , however , they were drowned out for decades by famine . Earth 's human population grew 293 percent in the 20th century -- compared with an average of 22 percent each of the previous nine centuries -- and farmers could n't keep up . As hunger spread , an Iowa agronomist named Norman Borlaug came to the rescue in the early 1940s , using man-made pesticides , fertilizers and crossbred crops to start the Green Revolution , which saved countless lives and won him the 1970 Nobel Prize . MNN : How to cut costs when shopping at the farmers market . It also highlighted a common critique of organic farming : It 's already hard to feed billions of people , even without rules against spraying chemicals or swapping genes . Borlaug 's methods often raised yields while reducing acreage , and it seemed for years he 'd proven the organic movement wrong . But `` chemical farming , '' as Lord Northbourne called it , lost some luster when synthetic pesticides and fertilizers were linked to environmental ills like cancer , blue baby syndrome , dying eagles and dead zones . Ecologists warned of gene pollution from genetically modified organisms , and overuse of livestock antibiotics was widely blamed for drug-resistant `` superbugs . '' This created an opening for organic farming in the late 20th century , and today there are an estimated 1.4 million organic farms worldwide , including some 13,000 certified in the U.S . Yet despite these gains , organic farms still struggle to match the output of conventional ones -- no small detail since there are now about 6.9 billion people on Earth , three times the 1940 population . And with that number forecast to hit 9 billion by 2050 , the future of organic farming remains unclear . MNN : Farms of America from the 1930s and '40s . It seems especially murky during economic dips like the recent recession , when higher-priced products of all kinds tend to suffer . But does organic food 's premium price translate into any real health or environmental benefits ? Critics like Alex Avery do n't think so -- the conservative author and researcher has compared `` organic-food fanatics '' to the terrorist group Hezbollah , and wrote a book in 2006 called `` The Truth About Organic Foods '' that , according to his website , `` strips bare organic myths . '' While supporters say organic farming merely reveals the true cost of food , Avery and other critics say it makes food unaffordable . Aside from supporting synthetic pesticides and fertilizers , they 've focused their ire lately on critics of genetically modified organisms . `` For nearly a decade these agri-extremists have attempted to totally block agricultural biotechnology , '' Avery wrote in 2003 , calling GMOs `` the most important and critically needed agricultural advance in human history . '' A brief history of organic farming . Early farmers had no choice but organic farming , and they still achieved some major milestones over the years , like taming the first grains in Mesopotamia or turning a thin grass called teosinte into plump , protein-packed corn . Agriculture has stayed largely organic for most of its 10,000-year history , from the first Fertile Crescent plots to the plantations of colonial America . Some plants would control pests and soil quality naturally , and humans helped by rotating their crops ; if extra fertilizer was needed , manure usually filled in . But some farmers used toxic additives as early as 4,500 years ago , when Sumerians dusted crops with sulphur to kill insects . Within a few centuries , the Chinese were killing lice with heavy metals like arsenic and mercury , a strategy later applied to crop pests . MNN : Where to find coupons for organic or natural products . Arsenic remained king of bug killers from medieval times up to the mid-1900s , when science found something more effective . DDT had been created in 1874 , but it was overlooked as an insecticide until 1939 , when Swiss chemist Paul Müller made a world-changing discovery that won him a Nobel Prize . German chemists had already invented a process by then for synthesizing ammonia to make nitrogen fertilizers , for which they also won Nobel Prizes . Borlaug then mixed these and other modern tactics to fight famines in Mexico , India and the Philippines , securing his own place in history . Meanwhile , a rival revolution still simmered below the surface , advocating ancient tools like compost and cover crops . It was led in the U.S. by magazine magnate and Rodale Institute founder J.I . Rodale , who popularized organic farming in the 1960s and '70s as environmental attitudes were already in flux . When Congress officially defined `` organic '' in 1990 and set up national certification rules , it quickly triggered an organic bonanza . USDA-certified acreage grew by an average 16 percent a year from 2000 to 2008 , and still grew 5 percent in 2009 even amid the recession , points out U.S. National Organic Program spokeswoman Soo Kim . `` I 'm no forecaster , '' she says , `` but I 'd have to say there 's a strong demand for it , and I would expect that to continue . '' For more on the benefits and downsides of organic farming , read the complete story at MNN.com . © Copyright 2011 Mother Nature Network .
World population outgrew ability of farmers to feed everyone in the early 20th century . Growers started using more pesticides , fertilizers . J.I . Rodale popularized organic farming in the 1960s and '70s . Sales of organic foods continue to rise .