Organic farming
Buying organic food might give eco-friendly consumers a warm glow inside, but does it really do much to help the environment? A bit, but not enough to justify the cost, according to new research from the University of Leeds
Buying organic food might give eco-friendly consumers a warm glow inside, but does it really do much to help the environment? A bit, but not enough to justify the cost, according to new research from the University of Leeds
Aproject run by Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Science found that the benefits to wildlife and increases in biodiversity from organic farming are much lower than previously thought.
And they aren’t big enough to compensate for the lower crop yields achieved using organic rather than conventional agricultural techniques.
Organic farms have, until now, come out well in research into biodiversity and wildlife. But these farms tend to be found in areas with smaller fields, more hedges and woodland, which means they have an inbuilt advantage.
The Leeds team looked to see how well organic farming did once these benefits were screened out.
They looked at 32 organic and regular farms in two areas of England, taking into account over 30 variables covering climate, topography, socio-economic conditions, land use and soil type. They also compared 192 individual fields. The team noted crop yields and looked for birds, insects, earthworms and plants.
Their conclusions raise serious questions about how we can use agricultural land to maximise food production and still protect our wildlife.
Crop yields on the organic farms were around half what they were on regular farms, while biodiversity was only 12 percent higher.
“Over the next forty years, we’re going to have to double food production worldwide to keep pace with population increases,” says Professor Tim Benton, who led the project.
“Our results show that to produce the same amount of food in the UK using organic rather than conventional means, we’d need to use twice the amount of land for agriculture.”
Because the biodiversity benefits of organic farming are small, “the lower yield may be a luxury we can’t afford, particularly in the more productive areas of the UK.”
Benton says we shouldn’t promote organic farming as the best or only method of agriculture; such a strategy simply wouldn’t be sustainable.
“To meet future demands of food production, we will need to keep farming our most productive areas in the most intensive way we can,” he says. “And potentially offset that by managing some of our remaining land exclusively as wildlife reserves.”
