{"id":7552,"date":"2017-04-21T15:19:51","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T14:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7552"},"modified":"2017-04-21T15:19:51","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T14:19:51","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-organic-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7552","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week – organic farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"harvest<\/a>The BBC consumer programme\u00a0 “You and Yours” was turned over to organic farming for a whole programme on Monday. \u00a0The programme looked at a variety of aspects of organics from a Danish and UK perspective.\u00a0 Denmark was chosen since it has the highest proportion of organic food sold in the world.\u00a0 In it I learnt something surprising. \u00a0 Organic farming could improve crop yields.<\/p>\n

The general thought is that yields of organic crops are lower than non-organic crops.\u00a0 This is for a variety of reasons.\u00a0 Firstly most crops with the exception of legumes have been bred (using classical methods) to require huge volumes of nitrogen based fertilizers (see past blog posts on this site).\u00a0 This produces high yields but takes a lot of energy and at a large environmental cost.\u00a0 A large part of the destruction of the Great Barrier reef is down agricultural run off, as well as climate change.\u00a0 Soils are also being destroyed by excessive use of nitrogen based fertilizers.\u00a0 Another reason for lower crop yields (and production of meat) is pests and diseases.<\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise when one of a number of farmers interviewed who was embracing organic farming was doing so to raise yields.\u00a0 This farmer grew wheat (needs loads of nitrogen) but his harvest had dropped from 3 tonnes\/Ha to 1tonne\/Ha.\u00a0 The reason?\u00a0 Lots of black grass in his wheat.\u00a0 I’d not heard of this, although I do recognise it.\u00a0 Its a common and attractive garden plant, although clearly a huge pest.\u00a0 It turns out the best way to deal with it is organically<\/a>.\u00a0 Other farmers were switching for economic reasons, they take a hit on yields but get a higher price.<\/p>\n

The programme also looked at the alleged health benefits (better nutrition) of organic food.\u00a0 This is much more contentious and difficult to prove.\u00a0 To prove this you need to grow exactly the same crop variety, in exactly the same soil, under exactly the same environmental conditions, harvest it at the same time and analysis the crops in the same lab using the same instrumentation and reagents at the same time (and I’ve probably missed something out).\u00a0 As this can prove difficult even in the same field, few studies have been done.\u00a0\u00a0 There have been some studies that suggest that organic milk has a higher content<\/a> of 3-\u03c9-fatty acids, one of the two essential fatty acids we need but cannot make.\u00a0 However it has a lower concentration of 6-\u03c9-fatty acids (the other one) and its unclear how much milk has anyway of this fatty acid.\u00a0 It not listed as one of the main sources.\u00a0 On a follow up report on today’s programme more questions were asked about the health benefits of organic food.\u00a0 There are some studies to suggest that some pesticides act as “gender benders”.\u00a0 This site had a look at this regarding fracking.\u00a0 This seems plausible to me since a very wide range of different compounds can act in this way.\u00a0 I would also point out that so many pesticides are withdrawn from use due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n

I buy organic food on occasions and grow organic food, but I would not get hung up on it.\u00a0 Its more important to eat a balanced healthy diet with as local food as possible.\u00a0 However having said that it seems crazy not to buy something that avoids a whole heap of problems and is not sustainable in the long term.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BBC consumer programme\u00a0 “You and Yours” was turned over to organic farming for a whole programme on Monday. \u00a0The programme looked at a variety of aspects of organics from a Danish and UK perspective.\u00a0 Denmark was chosen since it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17,3,15],"tags":[104,54,78,53],"class_list":["post-7552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week","category-peak-oil","category-practical-low-carbon-living","tag-food","tag-food-miles","tag-food-prices","tag-food-security"],"yoast_head":"\nOne thing we have learnt this week - organic farming - The oil lamp - 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