What is organic fertiliser?

The word ‘organic’ in terms of fertiliser does not mean the same thing as ‘organic’ when it comes to food.

Organic food follows principles of production which in general do not permit soluble fertilisers and synthetic pesticidesref to be used during the food production.

Organic fertiliser means “any substance composed of animal or vegetable matter used alone or in combination with one or more nonsynthetically derived elements or compounds which are used for soil fertility and plant growth.”ref This does not imply that the animal or vegetable matter itself was not produced using chemicals or is organic in a food sense.

As an example, rapeseed meal can be called organic fertiliser if the oil has been extracted using cold pressing methods, but this doesn’t mean that the rapeseed itself was grown using organic farming methods. If the oil has been extracted using a solvent, I think it’s doubtful that this rapeseed meal should be called organic.