ORGANIC Farming vs Conventional/RNN

We continue our series on recent controversy surrounding the benefits of organic farming:

If the world of sustainability were like a prizefighting league, one of its heavyweight champions would surely be Organic Farming, right? Well, recently a new challenger has stepped into the ring and has questioned the champion’s character and its claim of being truly sustainable. That challenger, to many peoples’ surprise, was “Conventional Farming.” In RNN’s last newsletter we featured an article entitled, “Organic Food Hurting the Climate?” This story was based on an international study provided by the highly respected Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, which truly hit organic farming with a big shot.

Well, like any great prize fight there’s always controversy and this article has provided a lot of it. Within three hours of the release of the newsletter, the story, in of itself, had over 500 click throughs, which is extremely good and shows a very high interest for such a short period of time. One of the people who clicked through and contacted RNN directly was Dr. Karen Weber, no stranger to the world of sustainability. Dr. Weber is truly world-renowned for her efforts and knowledge when it comes to going green. She is the Founder and Director of Boston Green Fest, President of Foundation for a Green Future, and has been recognized with more awards than we can list here. Dr. Weber took exception to the article and as a devoted fan to the heavyweight champion, Organic Farming, she came to its defense and wasn’t about to throw the towel in on its future. Rather, she felt a quick and strong counter was just what the doctor ordered against the challenger, “Conventional Farming.” So without further ado, let’s start round two of this battle with Dr. Weber’s response and we’ll let you, our audience, be the judge on whether there’s a winner, loser, or possibly a draw in this match-up.

On Behalf of Organic Farming

By Dr. Karen L. Weber, Executive Director, Foundation for a Green Future, January 4, 2019

The issue should not be whether organic farming is causing increased climate change as pointed out by a recent Swedish study (Stefan Wirsenius).  The issue should be the importance of increasing our research goals to determine the touchpoints and direction that agriculture needs to head in order to satisfy the world’s growing demand in the most sustainable way.  The approach of the researchers at Chalmers University of Technology to highlight the need for greater land use leading to loss of forest is misplacing the emphasis of sustainable/organic agriculture. It also pushes aside any other carbon use, such as the calculation of how much carbon is used in the production and transportation of pesticides and herbicides.

When soil is built up and polyculture is the norm, farming is transformed to a point where food production can be increased in smaller spaces, root systems develop deep into the soil, there is less need for water and carbon is sequestered into the soil.  The Land Institute of Salinas, Kansas is working to “develop an agricultural system featuring perennials with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain and seed yield comparable to that from annual crops. Through such a system, we can produce ample human food and reduce or eliminate impacts from the disruptions and dependencies of industrial agriculture.” 

It has been found by farmers in Niger that agroforestry can double the yield of conventional farms.  Trees such as Faidherbia albida are grown in the fields with maize.  They fix nitrogen, protect the plants from wind and water erosion, and when their leaves drop they compost important organic matter into the soil (Crews, et al., 2014).  Agriculture should not have to eliminate forests, but work alongside them.

Conventional agriculture has removed trees from across the midwest of the United States, uncountable acres of Amazon rainforest, and far more across the globe. If indeed large scale organic farming is creating issues for our environment, it is not a question of stopping organic farming, or upping conventional farming.  It is a question of finding the appropriate sustainable solutions for feeding our world in a manner that is respectful to our land and water resources while providing healthy food for us. 

There are 10,000 years of agricultural history to rely on and amazing minds in our world today.  We are fully capable of finding answers to our food dilemma using natural means to fight off plant pests, increase yields, and maintain our environmental integrity without falling back on the methods we have been using over the past 60-80 years that strip our soils of their value, pollute our groundwater and impair our health.  Let us turn this discussion on its head and look at a way forward. In the meantime, let us not belittle a form of agriculture that reduces pollutants and strives to put us in a better direction.  Let us work to make organic farming and sustainable agriculture the norm for generations to come.