Can Organic Feed the World? Rodale Institute’s Long-Term Study Says Yes!
[English Version/ஆங்கிலப் பதிப்பு | Tamil Version/தமிழ்ப் பதிப்பு]
There is one common question from those promoting conventional, chemically-intensive agriculture — can organic feed the world?
The underlying assumption is that organic cannot feed the world and therefore we must stick to conventional practices. In other words, stick to chemically-intensive, extractive agriculture because that is the only way we will be able to feed the hungry billions.
How true is this? Not true, says many peer-reviewed studies that have compared the two systems. However, the findings are not widely known, especially in local languages. Nor are they aggregated in one location. We plan to do a few posts on this topic in English and Tamil so we can collect all of this data in one place. This is the first in the series.
If in case you are hungry for the conclusion:
“Organic can outperform conventional agriculture.”
[Side Note: Krishi Janani’s mission is regenerative agroecology, which we see as a sensitive and sustainable evolution of agriculture. What does the term ‘regenerative agroecology’ mean? How different is it from organic agriculture? Those are topics for a different series in the future.]
Rodale Institute
Rodale Institute, based in Pennsylvania state in the USA, is a pioneering organization studying and promoting various concepts in organic agriculture since its founding in 1947 (quite appropriately the year of Indian independence!). An even interesting Indian connection to Rodale is that the institute’s founder J.I.Rodale was influenced to dive deep into organic agriculture by Sir. Albert Howard who in turn wrote his seminal work “An Agricultural Testament” inspired by traditional farming methods that he witnessed in India.
Farming Systems Trial (FST)
Rodale Institute’s farm in Pennsylvania is the site of one of the most well-known and longest running side-by-side comparisons of various farming systems. Since 1981, Rodale has been studying three systems in parallel — Organic Manure (organic cultivation with addition of livestock and cattle-waste manure), Organic Legume (organic cultivation of grains without any additional fertilization), and Conventional Synthetic (typical grain farm in the US with chemical fertilizers and weedicides). In Rodale Institute’s own words:
For nearly 40 years, we have collected data measuring differences in soil health, crop yields, energy efficiency, water use and contamination, and nutrient density of crops grown in organic and conventional systems managed with different levels of tillage.
So, what are the findings after almost 40 years of running this comparative study? First, the critical finding — “Organic can outperform conventional agriculture.” Let us unpack this in terms of various agroecology and climate-related factors.
Yield
This is the second most important factor in a farmer’s consideration (profitability is #1). However, this is the most critical factor when it comes to the question of whether organic can feed the world, especially with the explosive growth in global population. Highlights of Rodale’s findings:
- Organic yield is competitive with conventional yields after a 5-year transition period.
- Between 1986–2014, grain yields averaged 74 bushels per acre in organic manure system, 62 bushels in organic legume, and 76 bushels in conventional chemical agriculture.
- The kicker is in the long-term. In the long run, organic yields can outperform conventional yields, especially with agroecological practices such as no-till. For instance, in 2016, organic manure + no-till agriculture produced 200 bushels of corn per acre, “a record-breaking yield for our county that surpassed both conventional yields and the county average by 22%.”
Organic agriculture passes the most important test — yield per acre — with flying colors.
Profitability
As mentioned before, profitability plays a pivotal role in a farmer’s transition to an organic or regenerative agricultural practice. What did Rodale find in terms of profitability of various systems?
- Organic crops are competitive with conventional systems in the economic aspect. Lower input costs meant that more of the income earned by organic farmers were pure profit.
- Better News? More profitability was true even when organic crops did not get any price premiums. In other words, organic crops were profitable even when organic farmers sold their harvests at conventional markets instead of high-priced organic markets.
- Best News? Organic systems were 3–6x more profitable than conventional systems. Average net return of organic systems was $558 per acre per year. In conventional systems, it was $190 per acre per year.
Organic agriculture comes out top in the profitability factor as well.
Resilience
There are two resilience factors that are of interest to farmers and anyone who is still doubtful about organic farming’s capacity to feed the world:
- Climate Resilience: Rodale’s FST has found that organic systems ‘produce yields up to 40% higher in times of drought.’
- Weed & Pest Resilience: FST results have shown that “corn and soybean crops in the organic systems tolerated much higher levels of weed competition than their conventional counterparts, while producing equivalent yields. This is especially significant given the rise of herbicide-resistant weeds in conventional systems, and speaks to the increased health and productivity of the organic soil (supporting both weeds and crop yields).”
Health
Similar to resilience, there are two health factors that should be considered when discussing organic farming’s capacity to feed the world.
1. Soil Health: In all of the factors studied — carbon storage, water holding capacity, underground recharge, preventing runoff — FST’s findings suggest that “soil health in the organic systems has increased over time while the conventional systems remain essentially unchanged.”
2. Plant & Human Health: On the topic of nutrient density, FST’s results show that “organic oats grown in systems utilizing legume cover crops contain higher levels of total protein and higher levels of 8 out of 13 essential minerals analyzed — including magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, and potassium — than conventional oats.”
Notes
- In case you are wondering how Rodale decides on techniques to follow or what changes need to be made in practices, they have a farmer advisory group that helps with those decisions.
- Rodale keeps updating its’ agroecological practices based not on current fads but instead of persistent trends. Two of the more recent addition to their practices are 1) no-till farming and 2) genetically modified (GM) crops. We are eagerly awaiting findings from those specific practices.
To learn more, check out Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial highlights, 2018 FST brochure, and Farming Systems Trial (FST) 30 Year Report.
Can Organic Feed the World? Yes!
Back to the question — can organic feed the world? The answer: Yes, it can! And, it can do that in a far more healthy and resilient manner, benefiting human and planetary health.
So… agroecology for the win! :)
