Organic Farming and the Energy Crisis: Saint or Sinner?

Food production systems are partially responsible for contributing to elevated levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to the heavy reliance on fossil fuels and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Organic farming systems, however, strive to work so far as possible within closed systems, which attempt to use appropriate technologies and scarce resources sparingly. Drawing data from recent case studies this paper examines how close modern UK organic farming can come to these ideals. The paper will conclude with recommendations for the organic farming sector to deliver a food production system that will be required to operate within tighter economic, social and environmental constraints in the future

Research and development into the viability of a one hundred per cent organic ration for organic table birds within a silvo-poultry system

The study was conducted on a commercial organic table bird enterprise to investigate the impact of feeding a one hundred per cent organic feed ration to organic table birds. Performance of birds on the one hundred per cent diet was compared with that on a commercially available eighty per cent organic feed ration (and after a change in regulation an eighty-five per cent organic ration). In the first section of the trial the performance of two different bird strains (ISA 257 and colourpac) was investigated during the summer season, and in the second section the per-formance of a ISA 257 strain was investigated during the winter season. Agronomic and welfare factors as well as production traits were considered. The first section of the trial revealed no overall health, growth or welfare concerns or increases in production costs when comparing the two rations. Some minor differ-ences were identified between the two strains of bird. The second section of the investigation is still on going, but there are early indications of a increase in cost and larger differential in performance for birds on the one hundred per cent ration, when compared to the spring/summer trial

Do Farm Management Practices Alter Soil Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function? Implications for Sustainable Land Management

Maintaining ecosystem functions is a key issue for sustainable farming, while recent reviews (Hole et al, 2005, Fuller et al 2005) have highlighted that a wide range of taxa, including birds and mammals, benefit from organic management of land, there is a need to bring together the evidence for the impact of agricultural management practices on belowground biodiversity. A focus simply on the biodiversity of below-ground species is however not enough and there is a need to consider the contribution of below-ground biological processes to the maintenance and enhancement of a range of ecosystem services. A recent literature review on the impacts of land management practices on soil ecology and function shows clearly that farm management practices do alter below-ground biodiversity and ecosystem function. The data indicate that reducing the intensity of use of mechanical and manufactured inputs and (re)-discovering cost-effective ways to integrate biological inputs, will benefit below–ground biodiversity, particularly in lowland grassland and cropping systems. Benefits are seen from both organic and integrated systems; the evidence base is not strong enough to conclusively distinguish the benefits of these approaches from one another in lowland arable system

Elm Farm Research Centre Bulletin 79 July 2005

Regular newletter from Elm Farm Research Centre (EFRC)covering research, technical and policy articles, views and comment