{"id":1971,"date":"2013-04-29T10:02:55","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T09:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2013-06-27T16:13:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T15:13:38","slug":"can-organic-farming-feed-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=1971","title":{"rendered":"Can organic farming feed the world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a question that comes up on a regular basis in any discussion about organic farming – and its a good question.\u00a0 The usual assumption is that this is a rhetorical question – of course it can’t!\u00a0 How could a system of food production which eschews the use of chemical fertilizers hope to produce the same yield as conventional farming?\u00a0 However, scratch the surface of the issue and things start to look a little different:\u00a0 The truth is we are not really feeding the word today.\u00a0 Despite full-on commercial farming techniques used in many parts of the world, something like a billion people suffer hunger and food shortages on a regular basis.\u00a0 Although at present a poor harvest in one of the major food-producing regions of the world is balanced up by production from other areas, were we to have a series of below-par harvests across several regions, we could be in trouble.\u00a0 The high price of wheat and other agricultural commodities in recent years is one indication that the era of massive over-production is over.\u00a0 So here follows a few key points that should be considered in this debate:<\/p>\n