Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Organic farming systems could feed the world while slashing fertilizer use
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/node/436

A scholarly review shows that natural farming approaches could produce enough 
food for current populations if distributed equally, while reducing 
environmental impacts of conventional farming methods.

Reviewing nearly 300 studies and reports, a team of researchers at the 
University of Michigan concluded in a 2007 paper that low-intensive food 
production systems (including organic and other natural approaches) “could 
produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human 
population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the 
agricultural land base.”

Temperate and tropical agroecosystem farming which would comprehensively 
implement nitrogen-fixing (leguminous) cover crops could grow sufficient 
nitrogen to displace most use of purchased N fertilizer, the authors 
estimated.

The team’s paper triggered discussion about the relative role of crop 
rotations in organic and non-organic agriculture, and about the reliability 
of non-peer reviewed technical and research reports.

Full report
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1091304