Can Organic Crops Compete With Industrial Agriculture?

December 11, 2014

 

A handful of radishes and crops in a field

 

A new study representing a collaboration across several ESPM lab groups has found that organic farming is much more productive than commonly perceived. Led by graduate student Lauren Ponisio, the analysis of 115 studies comparing organic and conventional farming found that organic yields were only 19.2 percent lower—on average—than those from conventional crops, and the gap could be narrowed to just eight percent through strategies such as more frequent crop rotation. Co-authors on the study, which is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are ESPM's Leithen M'Gonigle, Kevi Mace (Mills Lab), Jenny Palomino (Kelly Lab), Perry de Valpine and Claire Kremen.

Read more at the UC Berkeley NewsCenter 

Read the study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B