Research on organic farming - is this valid?

[Asolepius]

I just spotted this paper claiming that organic farming can be very productive, more so in developing copuntries. This is sharply at variance from all the other reliable data I have seen, which mostly says that it is about 50% as productive as conventional farming. Are there any agriculturalists out there who can shed light on the debate? Is there something wrong with the data reported in this paper, or with the methodology?

 

[Puppycow]

It appears to have a pro-organic agenda. It is a little hard to know whether to take the results seriously. The comparisons of yields are presumably acre-for-acre:

On average, in developed countries, organic systems produce 92% of the yield produced by conventional agriculture. In developing countries, however, organic systems produce 80% more than conventional farms.

First, the fact that the organic yield is less in developed countries suggests that compared to the most modern methods, yields are lower. And this is presumably on an acre basis, not a labor basis. It might take twice or three times more manpower per acre to use organic methods. It is conceivable that modern organic methods produce higher yields on an acre basis than some traditional methods used in developing countries.

With the average yield ratios, the researchers then modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. They found that organic methods could hypothetically produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without putting more farmland into production.

Maybe so, but what would we be eating? Would it be the same mix of crops and meat or would low calorie-per-acre crops like fruit orchards be replaced by grains and potatoes?

 

[Freethinker]

It can be extremely productive if you add enough labor to it. My grandfather used to pick worms off his cabbages and tomatoes by hand to keep them in good shape without pesticides. He did it to save money. Probably pretty difficult to feed very many people with that kind of labor investment.

 

[Asolepius]

It can be extremely productive if you add enough labor to it. My grandfather used to pick worms off his cabbages and tomatoes by hand to keep them in good shape without pesticides. He did it to save money. Probably pretty difficult to feed very many people with that kind of labor investment.

You are right of course - labour is cheap in developing countries and probably not even measured. The corollary is that in developed countries organic farming uses twice the fossil fuel, which is an obvious cost.

 

[fibanacci]

. It is conceivable that modern organic methods produce higher yields on an acre basis than some traditional methods used in developing countries.

I think this is an important aspect of what is going on. The article is a summary article that is drawing on many different studies that are lumped together with not a lot of detail given so it is hard to tell, but I'm guessing that introducing the use of legume cover crops and compost to people who havent been using those is going to help a lot. The article doesnt give much indication of the time length of these studies either. It is just poorly written.

In a lot of these places, modern agriculture as practiced in the west is not feasible due to climate, topography, soil, lack of capital for equipment, fossil fuels, etc.

 

[fibanacci]

You are right of course - labour is cheap in developing countries and probably not even measured. The corollary is that in developed countries organic farming uses twice the fossil fuel, which is an obvious cost.

Can you point me to some studies that show organic farming in developed countries uses twice as much fossil fuel? I understand about more labor and maybe more fuel for increased plowing or mulching of compost materials but I thought those might be offset by not using manufactured and transported fertilizers, pesticides, etc. I've read claims of less water use because of improved soil texture and health, which equates to less fuel use in the long wrong.

 

[macdoc]

North American farmers use about 12 calories of fossil fuel for every 1 calorie of food.

Cuba does the inverse. Had no choice but to develop extremely efficient urban close urban methods and now does very well after hard times.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/08/news/CB-FEA-GEN-Cuba-Farming-Havana.php

They and others have developed a lot of complimentary inter related system..

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4BF01H20081216

China has been doing near closed loop food production for centuries - I recall an article quite a while ago in Sci-Am showing how a village of 500 could feed 10 x that number.
Fish ponds are a big factor as well as poultry integration with intense local multi cropping.

http://integratedfarming.netcipia.net/xwiki/bin/view/Main/Chinese+Ecological+Agriculture

http://www.acunion.net/en/enreport/Eco-Agriculture.htm

There are a number of small organic Asian farms in Ontario that are turning small farms around producing speciality crops.

This is a case of BETTER not just MORE.

 

[Geckko]

This would be a basic and expected economic result.

The relative (to labour) cost of capital very high in those poorer countries.
The relative productivity of labour lower relative to capital in those countries.

Result: there is a relative (not absolute) advantage in terms of total factor productivity to employ more labour and less capital compared with rich countries. Aand modern farming is tecnhology and capital intensive at its most efficient in absolute terms.

Think of another, non agricultural example. Putting expensive state of the art advanced IT and communicaions systems into a government department in, say, Ethopia. The relative lift in output would not be as much as you get from employing the same capital in the US for example. There is a relative productivity advantage in using less capital - as per the example in the OP for farming.

 

[macdoc]

You are ignoring energy inputs tho.

 

[pgwenthold]

I don't know about the potential, but one of the problems that I've seen with the organic farmers that I know is...they are poor farmers in the first place.

The reason they went into organic farming was because they couldn't cut it using traditional farming methods and saw the organic route as a way to make an easy buck.

My cousin is an "organic" dairy farmer. He is a complete woo, right down to the "antibiotics and vaccines caused the problems" in his herd. Then again, my brother-in-law is conventional dairy farmer and doesn't seem to have those massive problems (there are some problems, of course, but his mastitis and DA rates aren't a serious issue). What's the difference? Couldn't have anything to do with herd management, could it? Oh no, it's the evil medicine's fault...