Read Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society)

Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society)

Unknown Author

4.9/5 (10037 ratings)

Description:Paper presented to the International Fertiliser Society at a conference in Cambridge, on 11th December 2009.Contribution to the debate on the ability of organic farming systems to provide sustainable supplies of food.Summary: A recent paper Badgley et al. (2007) claimed that organic farming, if used worldwide, would provide sufficient food for a growing world population. The paper stimulated much critical response.Our paper makes a critical assessment of this claim for wheat, a major cereal crop and source of food throughout the world. We consider the problems of using experimental yields in estimating the productivity of any crop or farming system and then look at farm yields, comparing organic and conventional systems. We examine in detail the comparisons made by Badgley et al. and find many of them unsupportable: the ratio of organic : conventional wheat yields of 0.85 proposed by Badgley et al. we believe to be closer to 0.65. Nitrogen (N) fixation by legumes, the main source of N supply in organic systems, is shown to be much too small and variable to support large and consistent wheat yields of acceptable quality, and ideas that cereals could one day fix their own N found wanting.Our conclusion therefore contradicts that of Badgley et al. but agrees with that of a recent report by the University of Reading's Centre for Agricultural Strategy that organic agriculture cannot feed the world using current technologies and with the meat-rich diet that people have or aspire to. We do, though, agree with Badgley et al.'s view that there is a need to improve soil quality by adding organic material, reducing over-optimal use of fertilisers and agricultural chemicals, and optimising rotations to reduce losses to pests and diseases. There is also, perhaps, a wider societal need for people to reconsider diet in the context of their health and the ability of the world to supply the wants of its anticipated 9 billion population.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society). To get started finding Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society), you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: 28

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: International Fertiliser Society

Release: 2009

ISBN: 0853103003

Description: Paper presented to the International Fertiliser Society at a conference in Cambridge, on 11th December 2009.Contribution to the debate on the ability of organic farming systems to provide sustainable supplies of food.Summary: A recent paper Badgley et al. (2007) claimed that organic farming, if used worldwide, would provide sufficient food for a growing world population. The paper stimulated much critical response.Our paper makes a critical assessment of this claim for wheat, a major cereal crop and source of food throughout the world. We consider the problems of using experimental yields in estimating the productivity of any crop or farming system and then look at farm yields, comparing organic and conventional systems. We examine in detail the comparisons made by Badgley et al. and find many of them unsupportable: the ratio of organic : conventional wheat yields of 0.85 proposed by Badgley et al. we believe to be closer to 0.65. Nitrogen (N) fixation by legumes, the main source of N supply in organic systems, is shown to be much too small and variable to support large and consistent wheat yields of acceptable quality, and ideas that cereals could one day fix their own N found wanting.Our conclusion therefore contradicts that of Badgley et al. but agrees with that of a recent report by the University of Reading's Centre for Agricultural Strategy that organic agriculture cannot feed the world using current technologies and with the meat-rich diet that people have or aspire to. We do, though, agree with Badgley et al.'s view that there is a need to improve soil quality by adding organic material, reducing over-optimal use of fertilisers and agricultural chemicals, and optimising rotations to reduce losses to pests and diseases. There is also, perhaps, a wider societal need for people to reconsider diet in the context of their health and the ability of the world to supply the wants of its anticipated 9 billion population.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society). To get started finding Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society), you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Special Offer | $0.00

Special Offer! | $0.00

Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society)

Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: A Contribution to the Debate on the Ability of Organic Farming Systems to Provide Sustainable Supplies of Food: Proceedings ... of the International Fertiliser Society)

More Books