Organic Farming Yields 40% More Harvest Than Conventional Farming During Drought – zoohousenews.com

(Natural News) A recent report, which took four decades to complete, showed that organic farming produces 40 percent more yields than conventional farming during periods of stressful drought.

The Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial is the longest-running study comparing approaches to organic and conventional grain farming in North America. (Related: How Shifting to Organic Farming Could Help Rural America Recover from Economic Disaster.)

Organic farming eliminates toxic compounds from entering nearby water bodies, uses 45 percent less energy and emits 40 percent less carbon into the atmosphere than conventional farming.

According to the report, shifting to a regenerative food system could adequately feed the world’s population, reduce exposure to chemicals and improve biodiversity. It has also shown that yields for the organic approach become competitive with those of conventional systems after a five-year transition period.

The trial measured differences in soil health, energy efficiency, crop yields, water use and pollution, and nutrient density between test plots of crops grown in organic and conventional systems. The grains were the focus of the study as they made up 70 percent of the US crop. These were planted on 72 trial plots and applied with organic fertiliser, organic legumes and conventional artificial fertiliser.

Organic fertilizer represented a typical organic dairy or beef farm. It involved long rotations of annual forage crops and perennial forage crops fertilized by legume cover crops and periodic applications of composted manure, and used various crop rotations as the primary defense against pests.

Organic legumes, on the other hand, represented a typical cash grain operation. It included medium-length crop rotations with annual grain and cover crops, used legumes as sole fertilizer, and used crop rotations as pest repellents.

Conventional Synthetic Fertilizer Representing a typical grain producing enterprise in the US, used synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and controlled weeds with synthetic herbicides as recommended by the Penn State University Cooperative Extension.

The Rodale Institute explained that short-term studies, conducted only within a few years, cannot measure longer-term weather effects such as drought.

“This [drought] will inevitably occur. Or biological changes in the soil can be slow. We need long-term studies to find real solutions to problems affecting the future of global food production,” she stressed.

Experimental results highlight the dangers of using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers

Beyond Pesticides, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, said the results of the Farming Systems Trial are a welcome development.

“Many of these are related to the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and manifest themselves as degraded soils, biodiversity loss, widespread chemical pollution and adverse effects on human and ecosystem health,” its website says.

“These toxic compounds also play a role in deepening the climate crisis. These realities are challenging governments, institutions, businesses and people to change business as usual. But we must change and influence decision makers at all levels and in all institutions if we are to save the future of human life on the planet.”

Meanwhile, a group promoting the transition to regenerative food, agriculture and land management has issued a stark warning about current rates of soil degradation from erosion, desertification, decarbonization and chemical pollution.

“Without protecting and regenerating the soil on our four billion hectares of cultivated farmland, eight billion hectares of pastureland and 10 billion hectares of forestland, it will be impossible to feed the world, to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius, or to lose too much stop biodiversity,” Regeneration International said in a statement.

OrganicFarming.news has more stories about the benefits of organic farming.

Watch the video below, which talks about armed Fed agents raiding an organic farm in Pennsylvania.

This video is from the Puretrauma357 channel on Brighteon.com.

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Deconstructing the 3 biggest LIES attacking organic farming.

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Organic farming eliminates plant parasites longer than traditional chemical pesticides.

Sources include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

BeyondPesticides.org

RodaleInstitute.org

Brighteon.com