Re: Fw: [globalnews] 21 Year Swiss Study Shows Organic Farming Yields Ecological Benefits

[barrylia]

I was just about to post a message about this one myself, having just downloaded the published paper itself yesterday. On Tue, 4 Jun 2002 11:07:53 -0400 "jsherry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Environmental News Service: Organic Farming Yields Fringe Benefits [snip] > Besides examining conventional farming and organic farming, the authors also studied an organic approach called biodynamic > farming, based the environmental and spiritual philosophies of its inventor, Rudolph Steiner. "also studied"! The abstract and text of the paper present biodynamic as the first of the two organic methods used and BIODYN appears first or top in all tables and figure legends. Throughout the paper the organic systems together are generally contrasted with the conventional systems, but the BIODYN system is often singled out: --"...the flux of phosphorus between the matrix and the soil solution was highest in the BIODYN system --"Soil microbial biomass increased in the order CONMIN<CONFYM<BIOORG<BIODYN" --"Between 28 and 34 carabid species were found in the BIODYN system, 26 to 29 species in the BIOORG system, and 22 to 26 species in the CONFYM system" --"One of the particularly remarkable findings...was a strong and significant increase in microbial diversity...in the order of CONMIN,CONFYM<BIOORG<BIODYN" --"The lower qCO2 [metabolic quotient; decreasing ratio of total respiration to total biomass indicating more mature community succession] in the organic systems, especially in the BIODYN system, indicates that these communities are able to use organic substances more for growth than for maintenance." --"Under controlled conditions, the diverse microbial community of the BIODYN soil decomposed more 14C-labeled plant material than the ones of the conventional soils" Finally, though not saying "biodynamic," the paper concludes with what is essentially the biodynamic picture: --"We conclude that organically manured, legume-based crop rotations utilizing organic fertilizers [sic] from the farm itself are a realistic alternative to conventional farming systems." > appear in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 31 May 2002 Vol. 296, pp. 1694-1697 (news commentary p.1589 and online supplement with detailed description of the design of the trial) From the trial description supplement: The field experiment was set up "in the vicinity of Basle (at Therwil, Switzerland)". No indication whether the Goetheanum was involved. Against those who will dismiss the study as biased by special interest of organic and agroecology the research units (as I've already seen on Biotech Activist list), it should be pointed out that: "Farmer groups from the respective farming systems helped in designing the experiment and still are guiding the staff running the experiment. Plots are managed by both farmers and technicians." Importantly, it should be emphatically pointed out that the CONFYM system, using FarmYard Manure (FYM) with the addition of "mineral fertilizers up to the recommended level of the plant-specific Swiss standard recommendation," DID SO POORLY despite the presence of "the same amount of FYM as in the organic systems"! That should probably be presented as a strong indictment against mineral (i.e., NPK) fertilizers. Their addition, even in this limited amount, countered the potential benefits of the same amount of FYM! I don’t think this is pointed out in the paper nor in the news commentary. It must also be pointed out that although the FYM used on each plot was equal in terms of "livestock units per hectare," it was not equal in terms of its treatment. Table S1 (of the supplement) does list the biodynamic preps and sprays used, but only describes the FYM treatments thus: BIODYN "composted FYM and slurry"; BIOORG "rotted FYM and aerated slurry"; CONFYM "stacked FYM and slurry." These treatments are not detailed. A more direct comparison of BIODYN and the other systems should probably have called for composted FYM (without preps, of course) in the other systems as well. It is not clear whether we can consider "rotted" and "stacked" equivalent to "composted." To some extent, the BIODYN advantage over BIOORG here might be due to composting per se. _______________________________________________________________________ Barry Lia \ [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ Seattle WA