Mark:
My purpose in sending items like "PARADISE SOLD" is to stimulate discussion and debate on these lists, which you have done. However, for those of us who want to follow this up (and not fiddle with ordering a $4 book from World Watch), can you provide a little more information as to where we can find or who authored "the Michigan team's" effort.
For many of us, a scientific treatment means something we can find in a peer reviewed article, which World Watch is not. Further, World Watch's claims do run counter to previously published work, not just ideology (see attached).
I'm happy to see the literature corrected, but can you help us all with the original sources?
Thanks,
Rick
On Tuesday, May 9, 2006 12:46 PM, Mark Lipson <mark@ofrf.org> wrote:
>Shapin has some worthwhile (albeit unoriginal) observations about the
>sociology of food and agribusiness, but in the second- and third-to-last
>paragraphs of this piece he is simply repeating fallacious, ideological
>assertions about organic farming systems, productivity and hunger. A
>somewhat more scientific treatment appears in the recent issue of World
>Watch magazine. Here is a snip, and information about the
>article is below.
>
>"Looking at 77 studies from the temperate areas and tropics, the Michigan
>team found that greater use of nitrogen-fixing crops in the world’s major
>agricultural regions could result in 58 million metric tons more nitrogen
>than the amount of synthetic nitrogen currently used every year… In
>addition to looking at raw yields, the University of Michigan scientists
>also examined the common concern that there aren’t enough available sources
>of non-synthetic nitrogencompost, manure, and plant residues- in the world
>to support large-scale organic farming…The Michigan results imply that no
>additional land area is required to obtain enough biologically available
>nitrogen, even without including potential for intercropping (several crops
>grown in the same eld at the same time), rotation of livestock with annual
>crops, and inoculation of soil with Azobacter, Azospirillum, and other
>free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria."
>
>From:
>
>World Watch Magazine: May/ June 2006
>http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2006/193
>
>Can Organic Farming Feed Us All?
>
>Two recent studies reveal that a global shift to organic farming would
>yield more food, not less, for the world's hungry, writes Worldwatch
>Institute Senior Researcher Brian Halweil in "Can Organic Farming Feed Us
>All?" Organic farming tends to raise yields in poorer nations, precisely
>those areas where people are hungry and can't afford chemical-intensive
>farming. Where there is a yield gap between conventional and organic crops,
>it tends to be widest in wealthy nations, where farmers use copious amounts
>of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in a perennial attempt to maximize
>yields. "In poorer nations, organic farming techniques like composting and
>green manuring and biological pest control may be farmers' best hope for
>boosting production and reducing hunger," writes Halweil.
>
>Beyond this yield advantage, organic farming has proven benefits for
>wildlife, water and air quality, and food safety. And while analysts on the
>two sides of this issue are constantly at odds, some experts are starting
>to advocate a middle path that uses many of the principles of organic
>farming and depends on just a fraction of the chemicals used in
>conventional agriculture. Such an integrative system, they believe, would
>have great benefits for farmers, consumers, and the environment. "The lack
>of widespread support for organic farming from governments, industry, and
>farmer organizations is short-sighted and may ultimately be contributing to
>world hunger," says Halweil.
>
>
>
>At 07:55 AM 5/9/2006, Rick Roush wrote:
>
>>http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/060515crat_atlarge
>>
>>
>>PARADISE SOLD
>>What are you buying when you buy organic?
>>by STEVEN SHAPIN
>>Issue of 2006-05-15
>>Posted 2006-05-08
>....
>>Pollan seems aware of the contradictions entailed in trying to eat in this
>>rigorously ethical spirit, but he doesn’t give much space to the most
>>urgent moral problem with the organic ideal: how to feed the world’s
>>population. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a serious
>>scare about an imminent Malthusian crisis: the world’s rapidly expanding
>>population was coming up against the limits of agricultural productivity.
>>The Haber-Bosch process averted disaster, and was largely responsible for
>>a fourfold increase in the world’s food supply during the twentieth
>>century. Earl Butz, Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, was despised by
>>organic farmers, but he might not have been wrong when he said, in 1971,
>>that if America returned to organic methods “someone must decide which
>>fifty million of our people will starve!” According to a more recent
>>estimate, if synthetic fertilizers suddenly disappeared from the face of
>>the earth, about two billion people would perish.
>>
>>Supporters of organic methods maintain that total food-energy productivity
>>per acre can be just as high as with conventional agriculture, and that
>>dousings of N-P-K are made necessary only by the industrial scale of
>>modern agriculture and its long-chain systems of distribution. Yet the
>>fact remains that, to unwind conventional agriculture, you would have to
>>unwind some highly valued features of the modern world order. Given the
>>way the world now is, sustainably grown and locally produced organic food
>>is expensive. Genetically modified, industrially produced monocultural
>>corn is what feeds the victims of an African famine, not the gorgeous
>>organic technicolor Swiss chard from your local farmers’ market. Food for
>>a “small planet” will, for the foreseeable future, require a much smaller
>>human population on the planet.
>>
>>Besides, for most consumers that Earthbound Farm organic baby arugula from
>>Whole Foods isn’t an opportunity to dismantle the infrastructures of the
>>modern world; it’s simply salad. Dressed with a little Tuscan extra-virgin
>>olive oil, a splash of sherry vinegar, some shavings of Parmigiano
>>Reggiano, and fleur de sel from the Camargue, it makes a very nice
>>appetizer. To insist that we are consuming not just salad but a vision of
>>society isn’t wrong, but it’s biting off more than most people are able
>>and willing to chew. Cascadian Farm’s Gene Kahn, countering the criticism
>>that by growing big he had sold out, volunteered his opinion on the place
>>that food has in the average person’s life: “This is just lunch for most
>>people. Just lunch. We can call it sacred, we can talk about communion,
>>but it’s just lunch.”
>
>Mark
>
>Mark Lipson
>Policy Program Director
>Organic Farming Research Foundation
>www.ofrf.org
>831-426-6606
>
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