For those who have done their homework regarding how food is grown, who understand how different farming methods and the produce that they yield relate to human health and the natural environment, this may not be news as such. In fact, some of you who regularly select fresh produce based specifically on how it is grown may even offer a gentle roll of the eyes and a breathy “well, duh.”
That having been said, a new study performed by researchers from Washington State University and the University of Georgia finds that organic farming methods typically result in a more evenly balanced and diverse community of plant, insect, bacterial and fungal array of species compared to what’s generally found in conventionally farmed environments. As reported by Science Daily, organic farming methods are found to result in more balanced ecosystems, with larger and healthier crop plants and more effectively controlled pest populations.
The study, recently published in the journal Nature, focused on potato farming. Conventional methods of farming and pest control rely on a range of chemicals that may be effective at killing pests, but which also can leave lingering and unwelcome consequences in the food and environment alike. Conventional farming also results in a less diverse community of species, with larger populations of a fewer number of species living in the agricultural ecosystem. Organic farming methods, however, are characterized by a more even balance of smaller populations of greater numbers of species. The better balanced and more diverse ecosystems that result from organic farming methods tend to be associated with larger and healthier crop plants, the researchers find.
“I think ‘balance’ is a good term,” Science Daily quotes post-doctorate entomology researcher and study lead author David Crowder. “When the species are balanced, at least in our experiments, they’re able to fulfill their roles in a more harmonious fashion,” he adds.
Photo by Scott Bauer via Wikimedia Commons.