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Organic farming can feed the world

by Permission from The University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, MI - Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food on individual farms in developing countries, as low-intensive methods on the same land—according to new findings which refute the long-standing claim that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population.

Researchers from the University of Michigan found that in developed countries, yields were almost equal on organic and conventional farms. In developing countries, food production could double or triple using organic methods, said Ivette Perfecto, professor at U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment, and one the study's principal investigators. Catherine Badgley, research scientist in the Museum of Paleontology, is a co-author of the paper along with several current and former graduate and undergraduate students from U-M.

"My hope is that we can finally put a nail in the coffin of the idea that you can’t produce enough food through organic agriculture," Perfecto said.

In addition to equal or greater yields, the authors found that those yields could be accomplished using existing quantities of organic fertilizers, without putting more farmland into production.

The idea to undertake an exhaustive review of existing data about yields and nitrogen availability was fueled in a roundabout way, when Perfecto and Badgley were teaching a class about the global food system and visiting farms in Southern Michigan.

"We were struck by how much food the organic farmers would produce," Perfecto said. The researchers set about compiling data from published literature to investigate the two chief objections to organic farming: low yields and lack of organically acceptable nitrogen sources. Their findings refute those key arguments, Perfecto said, and confirm that organic farming is less environmentally harmful yet can potentially produce more than enough food. This is especially good news for developing countries, where it’s sometimes impossible to deliver food from outside, so farmers must supply their own. Yields in developing countries could increase dramatically by switching to organic farming, Perfecto said.

While that seems counterintuitive, it makes sense because in developing countries, many farmers still do not have the access to the expensive fertilizers and pesticides that farmers use in developed countries to produce those high yields, she said.

After comparing yields of organic and non-organic farms, the researchers looked at nitrogen availability. To do so, they multiplied the current farm land area by the average amount of nitrogen available for production crops if so-called "green manures" were planted between growing seasons. Green manures are cover crops which are plowed into the soil to provide natural soil amendments. They found that planting green manures between growing seasons provided enough nitrogen to replace synthetic fertilizers.

Organic farming is important because conventional agriculture—which involves high-yielding plants, mechanized tillage, synthetic fertilizers and biocides—is so detrimental to the environment, Perfecto said. For instance, fertilizer runoff from conventional agriculture is the chief culprit in creating dead zones—low oxygen areas where marine life cannot survive. Proponents of organic farming argue that conventional farming also causes soil erosion, greenhouse gas emission, increased pest resistance and loss of biodiversity.

For their analysis, researchers defined the term organic as: practices referred to as sustainable or ecological; that utilize non-synthetic nutrient cycling processes; that exclude or rarely use synthetic pesticides; and sustain or regenerate the soil quality.

Perfecto said the idea that people would go hungry if farming went organic is "ridiculous."

"Corporate interest in agriculture and the way agriculture research has been conducted in land grant institutions, with a lot of influence by the chemical companies and pesticide companies as well as fertilizer companies—all have been playing an important role in convincing the public that you need to have these inputs to produce food," she said.

 
 


Photo Credit: Jon Warren/World Vision

Global regeneration - beyond sustainability

by Cate Montana

WILLOW, NY - No one forgets the face of famine. For many people, the images of starvation and death that poured out of Ethiopia on the newswires during the 1980s will be forever carved in their minds.

Nearly 1 million people starved to death or perished from hunger-related diseases during that time of terrible drought and famine. The Valley of Antsokia in Ethiopia was a dustbowl filled with men, women and children waiting to die when Dr. John McMillin arrived in 1984 as a World Vision relief director. He set to work, not only distributing food, but starting a regenerative agricultural program that would restore the fertility of the valley’s soils and develop healthy farms and crop distribution systems that would ensure that such a disaster never happened again.

Twenty-three years later, crops thrive in this 31-mile valley in the country’s central highlands. Irrigation ditches channel mountain waters to the fields. Wells have been dug that bring clean water to every household. Sorghum, maize, and the indigenous teff grain flourish, and the trees are laden with oranges. Children are happy and well-fed and go to school. The local market sells locally grown produce. Amazingly, the local man-made tilapia fish ponds McMillin designed to supply high quality protein to thousands, reducing dependence on agricultural cereals in this arid region as a protein source, have proved so successful that the valley now exports fish.

The Antsokia regeneration project has produced more than an oasis. It has helped spawn a new science of global regeneration that is multifaceted and highly effective for restoring not only a region’s agricultural base, but its economic and cultural vitality as well. Today McMillin is COO of The Global Regeneration Corporation, a start-up company based out of Willow, NY. Created by Micheal Schacker, CEO, The Global Regeneration Corporation is focused on giving the planet and humanity a second chance to restore the Earth and create a different future where a sustainable balance can be reached with Nature.

By using the Rodale Regenerative Zone Method, The Global Regeneration Corporation plans to uplift pockets of about 100-200 thousand people in areas around the world, starting in the Caribbean and in Central America and Africa. "When you times that by 10,000, then you could lift up the two billion people living in the greatest poverty in the world - abject poverty," says Schacker. "These are the people living on depleted soils and they simply need to know these regenerative steps so they can start composting and regenerating the soil. It will take a great concerted effort to do those 10,000 zones - something I call the Global Regeneration Plan."

The plan is incredibly simple and begins by building up the area’s agricultural and economic base. If the region has sufficient water resources, tilapia fish ponds are started which are easy to construct and maintain, and which provide an immediate healthy food source. Excess fish is exported and the proceeds (and the fish by-products) are plowed back into restoring the organic humus and nutrient base of the zone’s soils. As soil fertility increases, the agricultural base becomes more sustainable.

"By combining intensive tilapia farming with bio-dynamic gardening, we complete the nitrogen cycle, and can raise yields five to ten times on the same piece of land," says McMillin, who has been at the forefront developing technologies designed to increase the viability of regional food production zones around the world. "It’s a zero-pollution process, using natural lagoons and special plants to absorb waste. The water that leaves the farm is pure."

And so is the food. Tremendous focus is placed on not only building up the health of the soils and water supplies of the regenerative zones, but on building up the physical health of the local population as well. Minimally processed, locally grown organic produce is one of the foundations of health. But the regeneration cycle doesn’t stop there.

For each selected Regenerative Zone, a Development Plan is created with the participation of as many people from the region as possible. Because each region has different resources and different needs, McMillin analyzes the appropriate steps to be taken. The idea is to match resources with local needs--as well as possible external, out of zone, needs for foodstuffs and other products. Not all produce is sold locally. Surpluses are guaranteed to be purchased at guaranteed prices that are above local prices, by the Global Regeneration Corporation and then are either exported and sold, or processed by affiliate organizations and sold at a profit. At the same time, regenerative agriculture and micro-credit programs unlock the potential of the land and the villagers themselves, building up both.

"You are trying to make each region as self sufficient as possible," says Schacker. "You are trying to create multiple regenerative sources within each cell."

A new way of doing business

A for-profit company, the Global Regeneration Corporation (GRC) sources funds from philanthropies as well as from social capital companies interested in investing in companies that have a big social impact. In turn, GRC funnels the money to the zones to get the fish and agricultural programs going. They also turn around and buy the products.

"We basically are buying, processing, and distributing the surplus food that the farmers make, which is really important because you don’t want them to flood the local market with a lot of food, because then the prices will just crash. So you really have to plan it out and pay attention to what is going on in the local market and let people know that you will pay a higher price. And then they start bringing you their crops. I mean, why sit in the market all day when we will buy it all for more?"

This system works especially well in areas where transportation problems make exporting and selling surpluses difficult, if not impossible, for local farmers. For example in some Caribbean islands bananas are gown, but the only way to get them off the small islands in sufficient bulk to make it worthwhile, is by boat. But the farmers can’t afford to pay shipping, and few local organizations can afford to fetch the bananas from the growers either. In this kind of situation, GRC provides landing boats, buys the bananas, then either sells the bananas in a different market, or processes them through affiliate companies that are local start-ups. This provides a win-win-win situation all around. In essence, GRC plans to build a healthy, sustainable agricultural and economic ecosystem, zone by zone.

"The idea is to get the money to circulate within the region as much as possible," Schacker emphasizes. "Foreign aid, up to this point, has actually been detrimental. It hasn’t taught sustainability – it’s actually been talked down. And so the money just keeps going back to America and it makes them less self sufficient."

Currently Schacker is reaching out to philanthropic organizations as well as social capital firms, getting funding in place. A major presentation of McMillin’s work and GRC’s Global Regeneration Plan will be presented in New York early next year.


For more information about the Global Regeneration Corporation, click here. To see a video about McMillin’s work in the Antsokia Valley, click here.

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