by THOMAS on Apr 2, 2012 • 1:42 am
There is this myth out there in TV land that we need huge agribusiness to provide all of this food to feed the world population and that smaller farms are just not capable of delivering. Well the times they are a changing. A recent report by The Rodale Institute cites a study of small scale farmers in 57 countries, whose yields increased by an average of 79% when they used sustainable agriculture techniques. There was additional research in developing countries that found organic farming was two to three times more productive than conventional farming.
Organic farming methods restore nutrients and carbon to the soil, resulting in higher nutrient density and increased yields. Organic soils also contain more beneficial microorganisms, are less vulnerable to erosion, and better retain moisture to help plants survive drought conditions. The Rodale Institutes research farm in Pennsylvania conducted a twentyeight year side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming practices and found that organically grown corn and soybeans are more resistant to drought, and outperform conventional crops by 50 to 100 percent respectively. The future is looking maybe not so dim?