Organics Reducing Climate Change
Sustainable Farming Results in Lower Emissions of Greenhouse Gas.
Jul 18, 2007
Because of the way in which they operate organic farmers “treading lightly” on the earth help slow the rate of climate change. The more that organic farming is encouraged and the greater government support given to the sector, the less drastic will be the effects of global warming.
Increasing the encouragement for farmers to turn to organic methods of production in Tropical, Sub-tropical and even Temperate zones should result in the greater long-term sustainability of food production.
“This is the way forward to ensuring that the farming and food production sectors conserve and make efficient use of natural resources, work on closed-loop principles and achieve enhanced self-sufficiency and independence from fossil fuels.”
Source: The Organic Advantage, BFA July 2007, www.bfa.com.au
The online magazine, The Organic Advantage, published by The Biological Farmers of Australia (bfa) quotes material sourced from FiBL, Germany, www.fibl.org, noting information from a BioFach (2007) German workshop revealing the vital role of organic farming.
Organic farmers strive to achieve a “closed-loop” system such that nothing produced on the farm is wasted – as much as possible is returned to the soil - and the least amount of materials from outside enter. An example is water: organic farmers try to conserve their water and not use it profligately. Farmers do not allow water to run off, other than into natural water courses, and never with a chemical burden that will affect down-steam consumers.
Such farmers typically use fewer inputs and especially use fewer petroleum based products such as fuel and synthetic chemicals. USA research into comparative farming practises has tended to show that the organic farm is more likely to be economically sustainable over time because of the vast differential in costly inputs.
Rather than using synthetic fuels sourced from petroleum, the organic farmer achieves good yields through the efficient use of organic materials. These include animal manure as the plant residues from harvested crops and farm made composts. The bfa believe that this saves 50 to 150 kg per hectare of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.
“Studies have shown that conventional arable farming operations in England consume some 17,000 litres of fossil fuels embodied in fertilizers per 100 hectare of land each year. Worldwide, 90 million tonnes of mineral oil or natural gas are processed to nitrogen fertilizer every year. This generates 250 million tonnes of CO2 emissions”
source: The Organic Advantage.
Rather than contributing to the production of greenhouse gases, organic farmers sequester Carbon Dioxide in the biomass of the soil. This is up to 10 to 15 percent greater than from conventional farming methods according to a long term Swiss study.
By building up soils through enriching them with composts and building humus, the soils on an organic farm are able to resist the effects of climate change, especially through their greater ability to store water thus helping to drought-proof the farm and to ensure that rivers run clearer.
Through achieving less reliance on fossil fuel, improving water quality, retaining water on farm, improving the soil, and using fewer chemicals farmers tread more lightly upon the earth.
