05.06.08 - Organic Farming Mitigates Climate Change - back
Organic Farming Mitigates Climate Change
A 30 year scientific trial shows that organic practices could counteract up to 40pc of global greenhouse gas output.
Organic Federation of Australia chairman, Andre Leu, claims the trial of organic and conventional farming practices has proved that organic practices "can be the single biggest way to mitigate climate change".
"Scientists at the Rodale Institute in the US have proved that organic farming practices can remove about 7000kg of carbon dioxide from the air each year and sequester it in a hectare of farmland," said Andre Leu.
According to Andre Leu, the scientists estimated that if all of America's 100 million hectares of cropland were converted to organic practices, it would be the equivalent of taking 217 million cars off the road. This is nearly 88pc of all cars in the US and more than a third of all the cars in the world.
Dr Paul Hepperly, PhD, research director at The Rodale Institute and Fulbright Scholar stated: "We've shown that organic practices can do better than anyone thought at sequestering carbon, and could counteract up to 40pc of global greenhouse gas output."
Andre Leu said it was important to note that the research into the amount of CO2 sequestered was based on what had already been achieved through current organic farming practices.
"This is not a theoretical estimate as in some of the tree plantation models or unproven like the millions of dollars being spent on clean coal or mechanical geo sequestration trials," he said. "This is being achieved now by organic farmers in the US, Australia and around the world. Adopting organic practices on our farmland in Australia is a proven way to remove huge quantities of greenhouse gases and help in the fight against climate change. There is no other proven method that is as effective as organic farming in removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and sequestering them into the soil.
The Australian Government and industry needs to start seriously investing in organic farming. It will benefit the whole planet” said Andre Leu.
Fast Facts from the Rodale Institute
If only 10,000 medium sized farms in the U.S. converted to organic production, they would store so much carbon in the soil that it would be equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road, or reducing car miles driven by 14.62 billion miles.
Converting the U.S.’s 160 million corn and soybean acres to organic production would sequester enough carbon to satisfy 73 percent of the Kyoto targets for CO2 reduction in the U.S.
U.S. agriculture as currently practiced emits a total of 1.5 trillion pounds of CO2 annually into the atmosphere. Converting all U.S. cropland to organic would not only wipe out agriculture's massive emission problem. By eliminating energy-costly chemical fertilizers, it would actually provide a net increase in soil carbon of 734 billion pounds.
