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  • From: "Jill Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Latest tirade against organics
  • Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:18:45 -0500

What the article doesn't mention is that organic farming is sustainable, and
can get us through a decline in the availability of petroleum products - the
"conventional" system is based upon petroleum products - the fertilizer and
pesticides both. Biotech crops require large inputs of such things (well,
not pesticides - those are sometimes within the plant itself - but then
there are environmental repercussions). As the price and availability of
these petroleum products increases, it will be more difficult for
"conventional" farms to compete.

A need for labor to produce organic food is not a detriment, but rather an
asset. Such jobs could be "right livelihood" jobs - and although farming is
a dangerous profession, it still provides jobs producing something
worthwhile, without producing the toxic byproducts that other jobs sometimes
involve. I envision a world where we focus on making farming safer. And,
without the exposure to the toxic herbicides and pesticides that our current
system uses, we will have at least made that part of farming less dangerous.
(There is still the machinery...) As our society transitions to a
sustainable one, we will need plenty of jobs producing things that people
need, and that will make them healthy, rather than producing things to
supply people's wants that make them and the environment ill.

Jill Bussiere, Wisconsin





-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Lucy
Goodman
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 9:09 AM
To: Organic Gardening Discussion List; OGII; Sustainable Agriculture
Network Discussion Group; SustainableAg AT yahoogroups.com; Market Farming
Subject: [Market-farming] Latest tirade against organics


From our Friends at the Hudson institute



http://www.cgfi.org/materials/articles/2005/july_25_05.htm

New Rodale Institute Study Reveals Organic Farming System Yields 30
Percent Less Food Than Conventional System

Organic farming can't compete against the newest biotech farming systems.

Churchville, VA (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) July 18, 2005 -- A recent
press release from Cornell University claims that a new study
demonstrates that "organic farms produce same yields as conventional
farms." The abstract to the new paper states that one of the benefits of
organic are "yields similar to those of conventional systems."

Detailed examination of the study reveals the conventional farm system
would yield 30 percent more grain over 30 years compared to the organic
system.

The research, by David Pimentel and researchers at the organic Rodale
Institute, reveals that the food production deficit of the organic
farming system is a result of needing to devote time and land to growing
organic fertilizer rather than food.

As the authors put it, while "yields per ha between organic and
conventional corn for grain may be similar within a given year," the
"organic grain rotation required a legume cover crop before the corn.
This was established after the wheat harvest. Thus, corn was grown 60
percent of the time in the conventional rotation, but only 33 percent of
the time in the organic rotation…The reduced amount of corn grown in the
organic rotation is partly compensated for with the additional crop of
wheat."

Under the study parameters, the conventional system would yield three
corn crops and two soybean crops over five years, whereas the organic
system would yield one corn crop, a single soybean crop, and one wheat
crop over three years.

Using yield data reported in this new paper, over 30 years the
conventional system would yield 132,000 pounds of grain per acre. In
comparison, using the organic corn and soybean data presented in this
paper and wheat yield data from the Rodale Institute's website (as these
data are not reported in the paper), the organic farm system would yield
only 101,600 pounds of grain per acre over 30 years. In other words, the
conventional farm system would yield 30 percent more than the organic
system.

As important, the Rodale research shows that:
-- nitrogen losses to the environment are the same between organic and
conventional systems, contrary to widespread claims that organic farming
reduces nutrient pollution
-- the organic system lost 32 percent of the nitrogen added to its
system compared to only 20 percent for the conventional, demonstrating
greater nitrogen use efficiency in the conventional system
-- organic system required 35 percent more labor
-- contrary to claims made in the paper, no evidence is given to support
claims of lower soil erosion in the organic system

Critically, the Rodale research does not compare organic farming to the
latest no- and low-tillage farming systems increasingly adopted by
non-organic farmers with the advent of herbicide-tolerant biotech crops.
These no- and low-tillage farming systems reduce soil loss rates to near
zero and improve soil quality, porosity, and water-holding capacity.

Thus, the Rodale research is a comparison of the best organic system
versus dated conventional farming methods.

Claims of equal yields by organic researchers and organic groups must be
analyzed in the context of the whole farm and when this is done, no
organic farming system has ever shown equal food production.



Lucy Goodman
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa

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