organic farming and climate change

Following on from the recent article critically examining the DEFRA/MBS report on the sustainability/carbon footprint of organic food, have a look at this article, which appeared in the Irish Examiner a couple of weeks ago.

There are two ways to look at the effect of organic farming on climate change. One is to look at the effect of current organic production on climate change. The other is to conduct field trails that compare organic and conventional farming systems.

A fundamental problem with the former is that presently organic farming accounts for only 3% of the EU�s farming. In this context, it is inevitable that in a certified, traceable system the movement of agri-inputs and the use of various certified, traceable processes occasionally increases the organic system�s greenhouse gas emissions. As an example, organic farmers have to source guaranteed GM-free manure, rather than just use any available local source, as was the case before a percentage of GM ingredients was added to most winter feed rations on conventional farms.

In order to better asses the potential of farming systems to contribute to or take away from global warming, scenario comparisons need to be done. Comparing a world where food is produced organically to one where it is produced conventionally is far more useful than the fundamentally truncated and inevitably misleading 3% scenario.

This is especially important in the context of global warming: food production both contributes to it - 25-30% of global warming by most reckonings - and will be effected by it. Specific agriculturally-related changes include changes in what can be produced where; rising tides; increases in temperature with various regional variations (in Ireland, this includes a split between the already wet west getting wetter and the relatively dry east getting drier); increased droughts and increased cyclones. It goes without saying that each of these effects has knock-on effects, encompassing aspects as divergent as insurance premiums, holiday homes and diets.

Field trials allow for the study of something other than organic farming in the current 3% scenario. In these trials it is possible to, literally, compare organic and conventional worlds of farming.

Various field trials have been highlighted before in this diary. Other more recent research was presented in February at Biofach 2007 by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL). This week and next, some of the key findings will be presented.

Dr. Andreas Fliessbach made a presentation on the scientific evidence of the role of organic agriculture in climate change, based mainly on field trials (the DOK trails) in Switzerland. Fliessbach first points to the lack of mineral fertilizer use in the organic system. Mineral fertilizer production necessitates large amounts of fossil fuel.

Carbon sequestering (locking carbon away, rather than allowing it to enter the atmosphere) emerges from his research as one of the major benefits of the organic system. He cites Swiss research that finds lower levels of energy use in an organic system: 46-49% lower when compared to conventional mineral fertilizer systems, and 31-35% lower when compared to conventional manure based systems.

Because energy use is not the only cause of greenhouse gases in agriculture, he compares the greenhouse gas production of organic and conventional systems. Organic farming�s �greenhouse warming potential� is 29-32% lower than conventional mineral fertilizer systems, and 35-37% lower than in conventional manure systems.

Because the ozone depleting nitrous oxide is inevitably released with nitrogen application, the lower levels applied in the organic system also emerged as beneficial. Likewise, the lower stocking rates of animals, as well as their use as a source of manure and their generally more integrated role on an organic farm emerged as beneficial.

Fliessbach concludes by summarising the various climate change reducing dimensions of the organic system. These are resource limitation; optimisation of manure use; crop rotations; mixed livestock and crop production systems; temporal or permanent grass-clover; and set-asides, extensification programmes and ecological measures.

Next week, more of the FiBL research on organic farming and climate will be presented.

To access the FiBl research into organic farming and climate change, go here, click on news and then click on the relevant link.

organic food miles better...
This week in the Examiner, I'll be both highlighting and critiqing aspects of a report commissioned by DEFRA, conducted by the Manchester Business School. The report focuses on sustainability and food provisioning, with a particular focus on energy.
Some good points made, but plenty of errors picked up by various anti-organic truffle hounds....
The article will be more factual than theoretical, pointing to various misreadings out there and mistakes in the research itself. However, there will also be a focus on the salience of combining seasonal, local and organic, otherwise even local organic food can leave a heavy footprint (see also embedded food miles).
Theoretically, one of the main criticisms will be the conceptualisation of nature and the farm as two completely separate things...
The farming supplement of the Examiner is out on thursday....why not prepare for the article?
You can see the featured report here

Imports or local organic fresh fruit and vegetables?

Here is an article on the various issues around imported or local organic fresh fruits and vegetables, taken from an organic diary of mine in the examiner farming supplement. One issue amongst many, not addressed, that I've thought of since, is embedded food miles.

Local food is often posited as the alternative to organic food. People now love to say that local is better, and better for the environment. There is some truth in this, but it's a skewered picture. That's because local food has _embedded_ food miles in it. I.E. local food, unles sit's produced in an organic manner, is produced using a range of agri-chemical inputs .The construction of these inputs uses up massive ammounts of fuel. Synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc, all need copious ammounts of fuel in their construction phases. So even if the food is local, the baggage it carries is enough to give it jetlag.

This is obviously seperate to issues around the pollution and reduction in biodiversity levels caused by these products. Then of course there's the whole issue of pesticide pioisonings in 3rd world farm labourers. Simply put, that doesn't happen on organic farms, it happens on conventional ones.

For more on the latter, see http://www.panna.org/
and specifically, if you have the stomach for it............

http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/whats_your_poison.pdf

None of this is to take away from the fact that local, seasonal, organic fresh fruits and vegetables is the preferred option. It's just to challange the naievity of positing local chemically drenched and imported organic as equal, or the local as somehow always better..........

article begins------
According to Bord Bia, the fruit and vegetable sector is increasing it�s market share all the time. Sales are now approaching �1 billion, with fruit sales alone increasing by 8% last year. Along with this, recent research from the UK has shown that many consumers use fresh fruit and vegetables as an entry point into organics in general.

In the above context, one of the most controversial issues for the organic sector is the importation of vegetables from far-flung places. There are many arguments for and against the practice.

�If I didn�t have the imports, customers just wouldn�t come into me� Jonathan Haslan tells me up straight. He runs the Organic Store in Birr, Co.Offaly. His family also farm organically, and produce the award-winning Mossfield organic cheeses. While he�d prefer to sell as much Irish produce as possible, he feels that most of his vegetable customers in the shop think organic first, Irish second.

I asked him if he saw any gaps in the market, where Irish produce could supplant imports: �Native Irish apples, new potatoes and salad leaves, they are the three areas I think could provide opportunities for Irish growers. I know that when I get in salad leaves, they sell out in a day, but if they don�t sell quickly they�re gone off. So you really need that product fresh and local�

Elmer Koomans O� Reilly runs Golden Goose, the certified organic greengrocer in the Milkmarket, Limerick. He has also been a biodynamic grower in Ireland for years, and currently operates as an organic fruit and vegetable wholesaler. So he�s well positioned to understand the dynamics of the emerging market for organics.

�I general, I try to source as much Irish organic stuff as possible. And a lot of my customers are very interested in getting Irish organic. But I have to say, it is not all bad news with imports. For example, when myself and others were selling imported organic cauliflower, we helped to create the market for an Irish organic cauliflower. Irish producers could see that it was selling, that there was a market for it. The customers, once they tasted it, didn�t want to go back to the conventional. So now I can source an Irish organic cauliflower for a good part of the year. I couldn�t a couple of years back.�

Not everyone is as sanguine about imports however.

Jason Horner grows organic vegetables in Clare, selling through shops and at Ennis farmers� market on a Friday morning.

�Speaking for myself I don�t sell any imported organic stuff at my stall, even in Winter. I just don�t agree with it. I think it�s the death of the whole thing, really�.

Jason sees the large-scale imports as coming from a system very close to the conventional system, with liquid feeds, organic fertilizers and a different approach to producing.

�The whole mentality is changing. I get calls from guys trying to sell me organic fertilizers with a string of numbers, but that�s not my mentality.�

�I pity anyone joining in now� he tells me. �You have the price of land in particular as a problem. Even specialising in something like salad leaves, you are putting all your eggs in the one basket so to speak. If you get hit with Aphids or something like that, you�ve got no chance�

Then there�s peak oil and food miles: �I mean if we don�t have a local organic vegetable infrastructure built up, when it becomes too costly to ship and fly them around, what will we do? And of course it flies in the face of what organic means to me, to be polluting to eat imported organic veg�.

While the state, through Bord Bia and the Department, pushes for bigger horticulturalists to changeover to organic and to supply the multiples, many feel that this is unlikely to happen. The conventional sector is too specialised, and perceived risks too high.

Jason sees the small guy in the vegetable sector as important for a variety of reasons. �You are more connected to the community, to your customers. It�s also more challenging to grow a wide variety of produce, and the taste quality is far superior, my customers tell me anyway�

How exactly the organic fresh fruit and vegetable sector will balance integrity and variety remains to be seen.

ends------------