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.
Contact: Alex Avery
Center for Global Food
Issues
Phone: 540-337-6354
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb262963.htm