How could organic stuff not be better? Eschewing pesticides and fertilizers is better for consumers, farmers, the environment, and all the denizens of the ecosystems that comprise it—everyone knows that. Even ask Prince Charles.
Yet, like many ideas that seem to be straightforward, this one turns out to be somewhat complex. If organic agriculture has lower yields, it will require more land to generate the same amount of calories as conventional farms. It will thus cause more deforestation and the loss of biodiversity that accompanies it—hardly environmental boons. To find out how things balance out, researchers at McGill and the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota have performed a meta-analysis comparing the yields of organic and conventional farming. Their results are published in Nature.
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