|
Rodale Institute 
Thu Sep 29, 2011 at 11:18:19 AM PDT
|
|
Organic myths debunked! The Rodale Institute finally concluded its 30 year Farm Systems Trial, comparing yields of conventional/GMO commodity crops like corn and soy with two systems of organic (one with mnaure, and one with no animal inputs).
The results?
Organic yields match conventional yields.
Organic outperforms conventional in years of drought.
Organic farming systems build rather than deplete soil organic matter, making it a more sustainable system.
Organic farming uses 45% less energy and is more efficient.
Conventional systems produce 40% more greenhouse gases.
Organic farming systems are more profitable than conventional.
More significantly, organic is more profitable due to reduced input costs even before you consider the premium prices organic food brings in. AND, the organic crops did better in drought years than so-called drought-resistant GMO crops. And there's even more good news on organic if you click the links in this diary.
|
|
Discuss
:: (19
Comments)
|
|
Thu Jan 21, 2010 at 11:01:55 AM PST
|
|
Remember last summer's tomato blight on the East Coast? It wiped out much of the coast's entire tomato crop - and because it stays in the soil for YEARS, the entire region isn't out of the woods yet. But what if there's a variety of tomato that resists late blight? That was one of the things the Rodale Institute examined in their 2009 tomato tests.
They started out in 2008 by planting cover crops - rye and hairy vetch. They tested each cover crop's ability to fix nitrogen in the soil and to produce biomass that they would ultimately use as mulch to suppress weeds. In their tests, the rye was better at producing mulch and suppressing weeds, but the vetch fixed so much nitrogen in the soil that overall tomato yields were the same no matter which cover crop was used.
Then, in 2009, the blight hit. Rainy, cold weather made the blight worse than it might have otherwise been. Here's what happened:
Late blight survival varied by variety. The pathogen appeared on our plants in early August. We considered spraying with copper (a synthetic fungicide that is allowed but restricted within the National Organic Program), but decided against it because copper is expensive, doesn't work very well, and can poison the soil if it's used too much. We pulled out two of our varieties, Juliet and Pink Beauty, in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that our sole heirloom variety, Striped German, was partially resistant to the blight. While some of the fruits developed the tell-tale late-blight lesions, the leaves were unscathed by the usual browning and withering of the disease. We left Striped German plants in the ground and they kept trooping along through early September, putting out big and tasty-if at times rather ugly-tomatoes.
Here's another interesting tidbit in the article (unrelated to blight):
Many organic farmers use plastic mulch to suppress weeds and warm the soil, but the use of plastic mulch has negative environmental consequences since it increases runoff from the fields, reduces soil organic matter by speeding up decomposition and often cannot be recycled after it is used.
I've seen plastic used a lot and it really bothered me. I'm glad that someone else is paying attention!!!
|
|
Discuss
:: (8
Comments)
|
|
Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 12:50:45 PM PDT
|
The Gates Foundation just gave a $1.3 million grant to the Worldwatch Institute for a 2 year sustainable ag project in sub-Saharan Africa. Wow! I didn't know that the Gates Foundation was willing to support sustainable ag (since, to date, I've only seen them pushing the opposite). From Worldwatch Institute's press release:
Worldwatch Institute will assess the impacts of a range of farming techniques on the environment and agricultural productivity. The project will provide stakeholders, including policymakers, farmer and community networks, and international donors, with research on practical solutions for creating sustainable food security.
In other words, they are going to try some sustainable agriculture and see what happens. Nice. Here are the specific things they say they will try:
- Adding nitrogen-fixing plants into crop rotations as a low-cost solution for enriching soils and breaking weed and pest cycles;
- Overcoming freshwater shortages with rain harvesting, efficient irrigation, micro dams, and cover cropping;
- Strengthening local breeding capacity, including the use of farmer-run seed banks and genetic markers of important crop traits;
- Tapping international carbon-credit markets to reward farmers for enriching their soils and planting carbon-sequestering tree crops;
- Involving women farmers in decision-making at all levels.
Better yet? They are partnering with groups like World Neighbors, Ecoagriculture Partners, Heifer International, Rodale Institute, Slow Food International, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Global Water Policy Project. Very exciting! The end result of the project will be the Institute's 2011 annual report "World 2011: Nourishing the Planet," which will share the project's findings.
|
|
Discuss
:: (1
Comments)
|
|
|
|
Mon Feb 02, 2009 at 01:07:32 AM PST
|
|
Wow. Talk about missing the point. I've been cheering the recent headlines that organics beat GMOs in responding to the climate crisis. So what did some genius figure out? Why don't we use GMO seeds to grow organic crops and get double bang for our buck? Sorry dude. It just don't work that way.
Organics work because they promote biodiversity - the very thing that GMOs kill off. Organic means working with nature, not privatizing nature so it is owned by a multinational corporation.
Grist gives more details about the benefits of organics. Meredith Niles brings up one of my favorite topics, the Rodale Institute's Farming Systems Trial, a long-term experiment comparing organic and conventional farming systems between 1981 and 2002.
Significantly, the trials found that organic production yielded equivalently to conventional systems after a transition period. Yet even more importantly, Rodale found that in drought conditions in which rainfall was 30 percent less than normal, organic systems yielded 28 to 34 percent higher than conventional systems. Rodale equates the yield gain to increased water retention as a result of higher soil organic carbon. Water volumes percolating through the various systems were 15-20 percent higher in the organic systems as compared with the conventional systems over the 12 year period.
The BioScience article additionally noted that the organic systems used 28 to 32 percent fewer energy inputs, retained soil carbon and soil nitrogen better, and offered a higher profitability over conventional systems. What is so significant about this research is that it demonstrates the ability of organic agriculture to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions with fewer energy inputs and withstand climate change impacts like drought with greater efficacy.
Most importantly, it offers an economical and accessible form of agriculture for billions of small-scale farmers. Scaling up agricultural development in rural areas like Africa can be accomplished with organic methods like manure, compost, and cover crops.
And FYI - for the past year or so, Rodale has been using GMO seeds for the conventional crops grown in the farm systems trial. I visited and saw with my own eyes: organic corn standing taller than the conventional GMO corn and an ear of organic corn about 50% bigger than the conventional GMO ear of corn.
|
|
Discuss
:: (2
Comments)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
