Ami,
Thanks for the post. The second article was very informative. The first...not so much, although it wasn't bad. I think I may have read that one before.
In a nutshell, organic gardening is thus: feeding the soil and encouraging positive biological activity of microorganisms, such that it facilitates a complementary relationship between plants, soil, and organisms.
Chemical agriculture not only is not conducive to soil health, it actually discourages soil health, particularly in large scale farms where plants are sprayed and gassed year after year in the same locality. The chemicals used to keep the plants growing are destructive to the life in the soil, which undermines natural balance. The result is food with less nutritional value, because the mindset is geared around macronutrients at the expense of micronutrients.
Tessa, you may have read some of the threads were I talked about using the banana peel puree. Its primarily a potassium fertilizer, but others have pointed out that almost anything can be blended to feed the soil. Feeding the soil involves making food sources available to microorganisms (earthworms, for instance) that is eventually broken down into usable forms for plants.
As far as comparing N-P-K levels, this is what must be considered: higher percentages of macronutrients in chemical fertilizer does not necessarily translate into better growth. Much of the nutrients leach quickly because they are water soluble and are not buffered. Organics, although generally lower in macronutrients, tend to stay around longer in the soils and offer a greater overall benefit. One drawback to the long-term presence of chemical fertilizers in soil is the accumulation of salts, which may be harmful to plants. And like the second article mentioned, you run the risk of tying up valuable micronutrients with the use of chemical fertilizers containing certain kinds of phosphate.
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