Hi
Phil,
Following two articles conducted meta-analysis to compare organic and
conventional systems for different crops in terms of yield:
1. Seufert, V., Ramankutty, N. and Foley, J.A., 2012. Comparing the yields
of organic and conventional agriculture. *Nature*, *485*(7397), pp.229-232.
2. De Ponti, T., Rijk, B. and Van Ittersum, M.K., 2012. The crop yield gap
between organic and conventional agriculture. *Agricultural Systems*, *108*,
pp.1-9.
Thanks
Debjani
On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 3:20 PM, Ganter, Philip <pgan...@tnstate.edu> wrote:
> Jane,
> Just a note from someone who teaches an environmental science course.
> First, which skeptical communities have you in mind? Are they susceptible
> to data?
> If I remember correctly, the Rodale Institute (2006, a bit dated)
> published data from a long-term study of corn yields comparing organic (not
> till and tilled) to conventional methods and to the Pennsylvania average
> (Rodale is in PA) and found that organic yield was higher, so it is not
> clear that you first assertion is true for all crops. I am not aware of a
> review of conventional vs organic yields for lots of crops but I suspect
> one or several exist and, if you or someone else can give us the
> references, I would appreciate it.
> The second part would need some specifics. What sort of harm to the
> environment do you have in mind? Certainly, organic methods look better
> for the environment than the ~325 million pounds of excess glyphosate
> spread across American fields in the years from 1996 until 2009 due to
> overuse of Roundup Ready crops (Union of Concerned Science report). At
> first pass, I am having trouble imagining types of environmental damage
> organic farming makes worse but I might be missing the obvious, so could
> you be more specific.
> One comment as well: BASF had made the claim that their Haber-Bosch
> process made it possible for the Earth’s population to grow beyond 4
> billion. If their claim is valid in any sense, what is the most probable
> long-term outcome from agricultural policy that always sets increased
> yield as its goal?
>
>
> Phil Ganter
> Biological Sciences
> Tennessee State University
>
> From: "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news" <
> ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> on behalf of Jane Shevtsov <jane....@gmail.com>
> Reply-To: Jane Shevtsov <jane....@gmail.com>
> Date: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 12:39 PM
> To: "ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU" <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
> Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Organic Agriculture
>
> Lately, a lot of people in skeptical communities have been saying that not
> only does organic agriculture use more land than conventional, it's no
> better or even worse for the environment overall. What do those of you with
> expertise in agroecology think about this?
>
> Jane
>
> --
> -------------
> Jane Shevtsov, Ph.D.
> Lecturer and DBER Fellow, UCLA
> co-founder, www.worldbeyondborders.org
>
> "Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn.
> And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he *could* learn.
> It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and
> how many more believe learning to be difficult." --Frank Herbert, *Dune*
>
--
Debjani Sihi
Post-Doctoral Investigator
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian
Laboratory
301 Braddock Road, Frostburg, MD 21532 USA
Office: 301-689-7125
Fax: 301-689-7200
Cell: 352-222-5655
http://www.umces.edu/al/people/dsihi
http://research.al.umces.edu/~davidson/index.php/people/
