Can Organic Farming Feed the World?
By Anita M. Burke
Filed Under Green Living, The Big Picture |
Organic farming is now the fastest growing component of world agriculture, with farmers in 110 nations cultivating certified organic crops. In the US, more than a million acres of certified organic cropland and pasture were added over the last four years. The growth has been triggered by multiple factors. Many family farmers are discovering organic farming provides more economic stability than conventional farming. Consumers are buying more organic products as they are witnessing an increasing number of scientific studies revealing the dangers (to human health and the environment) of pesticides and genetically engineered crops. Consumers also support organic farming, because it’s more likely to support family farmers. According to the USDA, this upsurge brought the total acreage to over 2.3 million acres. Sad to say, as vast as that sounds, it’s actually less than 0.3% of the total farmland in the United States. We’ve got a long way to go.
With today’s global food security starting to heat up, this transformation can come none to soon. Scientists, agricultural experts and even longtime enemies of organic farming, big agribusines, are taking a hard look at some recent field studies by a University of Michigan research team. Their well-constructed model showed that a transformation to organic farming worldwide would yield 4,381 calories per person per day! That is 75% greater than the current availability…a quantity that could theoretically sustain a much larger human population than is currently supported.
Skeptics will likely chime in here and list all the reasons why this just cannot start happening immediately. I say we can do it in four years! Yes, there would be economic repercussions to agribusiness and job losses for their farm and factory workers. But these sorts of things are already happening, due to scorching oil prices and food embargoes throughout the world, not to mention the food riots of the last four months. And to bring it down to a local level, my neighborhood baker just frowned and shrugged his big Italian shoulders when I gasped at the price of my fave green olive loaf - last week, all day hot from the oven, $4.00. Today, $6.50!
The Rodale Institute has known the facts since back in 1999:
Organic methods are as efficient, economical and financially competitive as conventional methods, and better for the soil and the environment, according to a report documenting findings from The Rodale Institute’s long-term Farming Systems Trial™ comparing crops under conventional and organic management. A report looking at the first 15 years of the trial shows that after a transitional period of about four years, crops grown under organic systems yield as well as, and sometimes better than, those grown conventionally. In years of drought, organic systems can actually out-produce conventional systems. In addition, organic systems showed significant ability to absorb and retain carbon, raising the possibility that agricultural practices might play a role in reducing the impact of global warming.
Giddy up, I say, people are hungry. We’re long overdue to trade in our chemical vats for compost heaps. This is something we can do, and it can start right now.
Do you want to help transform America’s farms? Take action!
- Buy organic food at your local health food store or co-op.
- Shop at your local farmer’s market and ask if they have a CSA program. Make sure to ask if they use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
- Learn more about organic food from the Organic Consumer’s Association and share it with your friends and family.
Posted on April 17, 2008 |
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One Response to “Can Organic Farming Feed the World?”
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Anita–
Thanks for the article. Great info in a highly digestible form (pun intended..
)
I just read a book called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. The non-fiction story is a great inspiration to “eat local” and also breaks down the true value of organic farming and gardening. It’s a great read I highly recommend.
There is a companion website at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/.
The description from the website says:
“Welcome to the secret hideaway of a long-forgotten goat, the flowers of a peanut plant nosing their way into the dirt, the lost art of turkey sex: In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (HarperCollins Publishers, May 2007), our family documented our year of procuring as much of our food as possible from neighboring farms and our own backyard.”
Thanks again for shedding some more light on this important issue.
–Charles