There are those who would like us to believe that industrialized
farming is the only way to feed the earth’s growing population.
Disinformation comes daily from powerful industrial agricultural
companies whose profits depend entirely on the sale of chemicals,
genetically modified (GM) seeds, and food processing. Furthermore, they
maintain that massive-scale farming methods are key to adapting to
climate change.
This is just not so.
Contrary to what
the propaganda tells us, yields from industrial crops do not
consistently produce more food. It’s an industry-generated myth that
ecologically-safe organic agriculture yields less than conventional
agriculture. In fact, a comprehensive study
comparing 293 crops from industrial and organic growers demonstrates
that organic farm yields are roughly comparable to industrial farms in
developed countries; and result in much higher yields in the developing
world.
Numerous studies unequivocally state that our survival
depends on resilient and biodiverse farm systems that are free of
fossil fuel and chemical dependencies. The 2008 World Bank and United
Nations International Assessment on Knowledge, Science and Technology
concluded that a fundamental overhaul of the current food and farming
system is needed to get us out of both the food and fuel crises. The report’s findings indicated that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods are the way forward.
This assessment dovetails with a 2002 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report,
which found that organic farming enables ecosystems to better adjust to
the effects of climate change and has major potential for reducing
agricultural GHG emissions. The FAO report also found that organic
agriculture performs better than conventional agriculture in terms of
both direct energy consumption (fuel and oil) and indirect consumption
(synthetic fertilizers and pesticides).
Ecological Farms: the Only Real Way to Feed an Increasingly Hungry World
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By Debbie Barker
Grist Magazine, Nov 20, 2009
Straight to the Source
