this actually mentions biodynamics mycorrizhaie
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Environmental News Service: Organic Farming Yields Fringe Benefits
WASHINGTON, DC, June 3, 2002 (ENS) - A 21 year comparison
of farming methods has shown that organic farming produces crops that
average about 20 percent smaller than crops produced using conventional
methods. The study by Swiss scientists also found that organic farmers use
land far more efficiently and with less environmental impact than other
modern farmers.
Unlike conventional farming, organic farming uses no
synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. The organic approach more than made up
the difference in crop yields through its ecological benefits, argue the
scientists who conducted the study.
In one of the longest running studies of its kind, Paul
Mäder of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, in Frick,
Switzerland, and his colleagues compared the performance of agricultural
plots grown either with organic or with conventional methods.
There is a need to evaluate alternative farming systems
as a whole system in a scientific way. The most appropriate method to do
this is still to conduct long term experiments, which can be analyzed
statistically and performed under identical soil and climate conditions,
Mäder explained. Soil fertility and biodiversity develop slowly, and this
is why a long term study is essential.
Mäder's team compared plots of cropland grown side by side
using different farming methods. The crops used included barley, beets,
grass clover, potatoes and winter wheat.
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. Crop rotation, varieties, and tillage were identical in all
the systems studied.
Overall, the organic systems were able to produce more
with less energy and fewer resources, the researchers report. Their results
appear in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
These results should be encouraging for farmers, because
they can see that yields are stable over time, and that soil fertility has
increased, Mäder said.
Over the course of the study, organic farmers added 34
percent to 51 percent less nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients to the
soil than conventional farmers. Even so, crop yields from organic systems
were just 20 percent lower than those from the conventional systems, which
Mäder said shows that the organic systems use their resources more
efficiently.
The organic soils were also more fertile in other key
ways, such as hosting a larger and more diverse community of organisms,
Mäder and his colleagues report. This was true for soil microbes, which
govern the nutrient cycling reactions in soils, and for mycorrhizae, root
colonizing fungi that help plants absorb the nutrients.
Mycorrhizae are fungi that colonize plant roots, helping
the plants absorb nutrients.
These fungi were also at least partly responsible for the
more stable physical structure of the organic soils, the researchers said.
Earthworms, which help to aerate and turn over the soil, were more abundant
as well.
Insects were almost twice as abundant and more diverse,
including pest eating spiders and beetles. Weed plants were more diverse in
the organic systems, and included some specialized and endangered species,
the researchers found.
Our results suggest that, by enhancing soil fertility,
organic farmers can help increase biodiversity, Mäder said.
The organic soils also decomposed more efficiently, the
researchers found. This is an important feature of fertile soil, Mäder
explained, because the process releases nutrients and carbon to be used by
the plants and microbes.
The organic systems show efficient resource utilization
and enhanced floral and faunal diversity, features typical of mature
systems, wrote the researchers. We conclude that organically manured,
legume based crop rotations utilizing organic fertilizers from the farm
itself are a realistic alternative to conventional farming systems.
Organic produce, a mainstay at farmers' markets, must now
meet stricter standards in the United States. (Photo courtesy USDA)
In Europe, both organic and biodynamic farming are
regulated by national governments, in accordance with standards set by the
European Union.
In December 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
finalized the United States' first national standards for organic foods,
barring not only the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, but
