Organic farming yields as good or better: study

[nosmokes]

So here's another study that shoots down the big fear argument of biotech,that we're all gonna starve to death w/o their miracle frankenfoods. But I'm still not completely opposed to GMOs. I definitely believe R&D needs to continue in the field of transgenics, but it needs to happen indoors and indoors only. And the testing and experimentation needs to be done by reliable disinterested third parties, not by the developers or other stakeholders who have a long proven track record of withholding detrimental information, designing tests to ignore what they know will show unfavorable results and just plain hiding results that would show negatively upon the product. We also need to decider how we're going to deal with ownership of life forms as a society. I for one am absolutely not easy with the idea of huge multi-national corporations holding the patents to basic food sources. I want control over the food supply spread over as many hands as possible, TYVM.
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original-reuters

Organic farming yields as good or better: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming in developing countries, and holds its own against standard methods in rich countries, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said their findings contradict arguments that organic farming -- which excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides -- is not as efficient as conventional techniques.

"My hope is that we can finally put a nail in the coffin of the idea that you can't produce enough food through organic agriculture," Ivette Perfecto, a professor at the University of Michigan's school of Natural Resources and Environment, said in a statement.
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complete article here






Read the full study here.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Fantastic.

So that means all the farmers are going to switch to organic now, right? Since the yields are better?

[seasat]

2. But what'll happen to the poor oil companies?

The CEO of Exxon would starve if we switched to organic farming. He'd probably have to eat the rest of the board. Bet they didn't think about that when the made that study!

[Warpy]

3. The problem is the several year transition period

when the farmer is building up the soil, accepting big losses from pests and weeds, and can't sell what little he gets as organically grown because of the residues still in the soil. A lot of farmers out there just can't accept 5 or so years of poor harvests unless they can sell the stuff at the premium price organically grown food commands, and they can't do that until after the transition period.

If they can hang on, or if they're wise enough to transition a portion of their land at a time, they'll find those superior yields plus the higher price organically grown food commands will increase their income and far outweigh the extra work farming organically entails.

My hope is that more and more farmers start to devote land to the transition to organic farming methods. The food is higher in nutrients (although not enough to make a huge difference to human physiology), the soil becomes greatly improved, and the yields increase the longer the methods are employed. What's not to love?

[crikkett]

8. Higher nutrients in organic veggies are why it has so much more taste

and smell, and *that* affects *this* human's physiology, hugely. Yummy food is good for more than just its nutrients.

The food is higher in nutrients (although not enough to make a huge difference to human physiology),

[kestrel91316]

4. China got their population up to damned near 1 billion without

any artificial fertilizers or fossil fuel use at all. They only entered the modern era about 60 years ago.

Organic agriculture got the human race pretty much where it is. We need to give up our addiction to fossil fuels and fossil fuel derived agricultural inputs. We produce sufficient fertilizer from our own bodies every day to grow the crops we need to eat.

[firefox_fan]

5. There is a guy on the web, a certain 'mberst',

Who would disagree with you. I hope he shows up here and educate all of us on the evil of organic farming...

[Mugu]

6. Anybody that believes that they can get 3 times the results

with organic is fooling nobody but themselves.

Regards, Mugu

[texastoast]

7. Maybe not 3 times as much

but after a transition period during which the soil is built, every bit as much as conventional methods and probably some more.

Having been a gardner since I could pull my first tomato off the vine by myself at age 3, I can assure you that organic soil building creates extremely robust plants that can survive many insect attacks and other adverse conditions. Soil building and organic pest control methods work very well.

And it doesn't poison the fish and our children.