Is Organic Farming the Future of Food Production?

As increasing numbers of people become more conscious of both nutrition and environmental concerns, organic farming and its products have received more and more national and global attention.  For example, $4 billion of organic goods were sold in 1997 and by 2008 the total had climbed to $21 billion (Sizer & Whitney, 2012 p.468).  Organic farming prohibits the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives.  It is important for sustainable agriculture, food quality, soil and environmental health (Akbaba, Sahin, & Turkez, 2012 p.783).  Moreover, the growing problem of feeding our world's population faces the challenge of producing additional food while attempting to minimize its environmental impacts.  For some, organic farming, "a system aimed at producing food with minimal harm to ecosystems, animals, or humans", appears to be part of the solution (Seufert, Ramankutty, & Foley, 2012 p.229).  Some of the principle differences between organic and conventional farming methods can be found in the graphic below.

A study by Seufert, Ramankutty, and Foley (2012) has investigated the yields of both organic and conventional farms in order to determine if organic farming is able to keep up with food supply demands while not using addition land.  "It is widely accepted that high yield is essential to sustainable food security on a finite land basis" (Seufer, RamanKutty, & Foley, 2012 p.229).  Good results for organic farms appeared to be dependent on the presence and quantity of nitrogen, while conventional farms were not impacted by this element.  This is probably due to the fact that conventional farms utilize chemical fertilizers that provide additional nitrogen to the soil while organic farms abstain from using chemicals.  Nevertheless, the results revealed that organic yields for legumes and perennials were equal to that of conventional farms.  Sadly, in other cases, organic farms were not able to consistently match the yields of conventional farming, limiting its usefulness as a sustainable agriculture method on a large scale.  However, most importantly, the study indicated that normally organic farming simply requires more knowledge and good management techniques than conventional farming.  Therefore, this study's results seem to indicate the need for a "hybrid" method of farming as a feasible solution for meeting global needs.  

Nutrient content, another factor of organic products often considered by consumers, is explored in Akbaba, Sahin, and Turkez's study (2012).  The quantity of 27 elements was evaluated in both organically and conventionally grown pistachios in order to determine if a certain farming technique resulted in higher nutrient contents.  The results indicated that the organic pistachios contained greater amounts of calcium, iron, manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, chlorine, sodium and potassium.  In addition, conventionally grown pistachios were found to contain greater amounts of harmful metals such as aluminum.  This particular study appears to demonstrate the possible higher nutritional mineral content of organic products as well as the harmful substances sometimes present in conventionally farmed products.  

While organic farming appears to have some benefits, the sustainability of agriculture is something that needs to be considered as more important than in the past.  Sustainable agriculture is "the idea that a food system should maintain the health of the land, water, plants, animals, humans, and natural resources for generations to come" (Looking Beyond Organics to Sustainability a Growing Food Movement, 2010).  Organic farming strives to achieve healthy soils, plants, animals, and people, yet these goals are not always achievable for large scale production (http://www.ipni.net/ppiweb/agbrief.nsf/5a4b8be72a35cd46852568d9001a18da/e8d48113660c218985256c870011acef!OpenDocument).  Just as the study by Seufer, RamanKutty, and Foley pointed out, a combination of farming techniques will need to be utilized in the future in order to better feed the world's population and to preserve natural resources for future generations.  Overall, despite the recent popularity of organic foods, they may not always be the best choice and scientific, social, economical, and environmental factors will all play a part in the future of food production.  

Sizer, F.S. and Whitney, E. (2012).  Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies.  United States: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Seufert, V., Ramankutty, N., & Foley, J. A. (2012). Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture. Nature, 485(7397), 229-232. doi:10.1038/nature11069

Akbaba, U., Şahin, Y., & Türkez, H. (2012). Element content analysis by WDXRF in pistachios grown under organic and conventional farming regimes for human nutrition and health. Toxicology & Industrial Health, 28(9), 783-788. doi:10.1177/0748233711422734

Looking Beyond Organics to Sustainability a Growing Food Movement. (2010). Environmental Nutrition, 33(6), 3.

http://www.ipni.net/ppiweb/agbrief.nsf/5a4b8be72a35cd46852568d9001a18da/e8d48113660c218985256c870011acef!OpenDocument