Soil Ecology

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:Re:[SANET-MG]
Results are in for Rodale multi-decade farming trial
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:09:38 -0400
From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group 
<SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>

> Results are in for multi-decade farming trial The Rodale Institute
> has been operating field trials comparing organic and conventional
> agriculture since 1981. In September 2011, Rodale released a report,
> The Farming Systems Trial: Celebrating 30 Years, which quantifies and
> summarizes the results to date. Among the results are findings that
> organic agriculture yields are equal to that of conventional, and
> that organic agriculture uses 45% less energy than conventional
> agriculture.

Organic agriculture or rather beyond-organic agriculture yields are
often greater than conventional and are always superior in nutritional
quality (vitamins and minerals, enzymes, flavinoids, etc.), flavor and
keeping qualities (by a wide margin) and often appearance. They are
always safer to eat as production methods preclude use of any synthetic
fertilizers, any category of pesticides and are never grown from
genetically engineered seed.

The distilled essence of this statement should be included on a product
label organic growers can use in the marketplace and in advertising.

Of course, non certified growers can use it as well after substituting
any of the following words for organic: sustainably grown, grown using
biointensive, natural, regenerative methods and naturally grown, for
organic.