COULD THE ORGANIC AGRICULTURE FEED THE WORLD?

Could the organic agriculture feed the world?

"Some critics of organic agriculture claim that the world will have to choose between having enough food for a growing population and organic agriculture. How much truth is there to this argument?

1- For many crops, yields under conventional and organic management are statistically equal, as we have seen. The claim that organic yields are always lower than conventional is based on assumptions rather than side-by-side comparisons. Still, in developed nations overall organic yields are somewhat lower than conventional yields, in part because many newer organic farmers have not yet perfected their systems and in part because some crops really do have lower yields under organic management. In countries with less industrialized agriculture, however, the situation may be different. Some scholars predict that in developing countries a shift to organic agriculture could bring significant yield increases over the current poorly managed conventional systems. “Meeting the food security challenge through organic agriculture,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, May 2007; “Can Organic Farming Feed Us All?” Brian Halweil, Worldwatch Magazine, May/June 2006, Volume 19, No. 3. ; “Can Organic Farming "Feed the World"? Christos Vasilikiotis, Ph.D. summarizes a number of side-by-side studies of organic and conventional yields. A 2007 University of Michigan study concluded that organic farming methods could triple yields in some developing countries "Organic agriculture and the global food supply".

2- At the present time, hunger in the world is not caused by insufficient food stocks but by uneven distribution. There is enough food in the world for everyone to eat, but poor people cannot afford to buy it, and people in war-torn areas often cannot access it. In other areas, many people suffer from excess food consumption.

3- In 2006, about 18% of the US corn crop was used to make ethanol, and by 2011 just over 40% of the US corn crop was used for ethanol. Although some of the distillers grains left over after making ethanol can be fed to cattle, that US grain-fed beef is unlikely to feed the world's hungry. Unless energy consumption can be curbed, bioenergy production is likely to put far more pressure on world food supply than large-scale conversion to organic agriculture would. For example, the sharp increase in Mexican tortilla prices early in 2007 is attributed to the influence of ethanol production on corn prices.

4- Many agricultural practices, from feeding grain to livestock to growing flowers, reduce the total amount of human food produced on agricultural land. Like organic agriculture, these practices do not take food away from the needy; rather, they add value for farmers and consumers in a world where hunger is caused by inequality, not global food shortages.

Solving world hunger is a complex challenge that will require balancing population control, distribution issues, and non-food demands on agricultural land. Agricultural production plays a critical role, but the evidence indicates that organic agriculture can be both efficient and compatible with “feeding the world.”"

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