Fundamentals of organic agriculture

Organic agriculture can be traced back to the early 20th century, initiated by the Austrian spiritual philosopher Rudolf Steiner. It was later diversified by a number of key people, and more recent versions are guided by principles issued by the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), founded in 1972. Organic practices were built upon the life philosophies and convictions of the founders regarding how to perceive nature. Today, those original views and ideas are considered as history. However, to understand the principles and opinions of modern organic agriculture, such as the exclusion of water-soluble inorganic fertilisers, we analysed the original ideas and arguments of the founders, who shared the common principle of relying on natural processes and methods, seen as a prerequisite for human health. For example, the British agriculturalist Sir Albert Howard, who together with Lady Eve Balfour founded the British Soil Association, claimed that healthy soils are the basis for human health on earth. In their view, healthy soils could only be obtained if the organic matter content was increased or at least maintained. Later, the German physician and microbiologist Hans-Peter Rusch together with the Swiss biologists Hans and Maria Müller, focused on applying natural principles in agriculture, driven by the conviction that nature is our master and always superior. Even though these early ideas have been abandoned or modified in modern organic agriculture, the principle of the founders regarding exclusion of synthetic compounds (fertilisers and pesticides) is still the main driver for choosing crops and pest control methods

Widespread opinions about organic agriculture

Organic agriculture ostensibly offers a concept of sustainable practices based on environmental responsibility. It is widely believed that organic principles based on natural means and methods are environmentally sound and thus superior to systems based on artificial inputs. This overview summarises the main results on organic agriculture and highlights relevant facts in order to provide scientific information about the potential and limitations of organic agriculture. The topics of food security and safety, environmental quality, system sustainability and energy consumption are addressed. Some of the main conclusions are that organic agriculture has consistently lower yields than conventional production and is thereby a less efficient method of land use; that environmental problems caused by processes such as nutrient leaching are not reduced by conversion to organic crop production; and that soil fertility status and microbial biodiversity are not improved a priori by organic cropping. The energy investment for production of artificial N fertilisers results in a five- to ten-fold energy return in the form of biomass and this highly positive energy balance needs to be fully acknowledged. The future challenge of developing sustainable forms of agriculture to provide sufficient food for a growing world population with minimal environmental disturbance deserves our wholehearted and unbiased attention

Data sources for model validation – variety testing data from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden

Official variety tests provide one and well organized data source for model validation. Someinformation of official variety testing experiments of forage crops in Finland and Sweden ispresented in this paper. Information of the testing progamme procedure and of the latestresults are available for example in the publications of Dryler 2012, Halling 2012, Kangas et al.2012 and Nesheim and Langerud 2013

Evaluation of turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian golf greens, 2007-2010. Final results from the four year testing period.

This report gives results from the entire evaluation period 2007-2010 for a project evaluating turfgrass species and varieties for use on Scandinavian golf greens.publishedVersio

Evaluation of turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian golf greens, 2007-2010. Results from the sowing year 2007 and the two first green year 2008 and 2009

This report gives results from the sowing year 2007 and the two first green years 2008 and 2009 in a project evaluating turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian golf greens. The total project period is 2007-2010.publishedVersio

Evaluation of turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian golf greens, 2007-2010. Results from the sowing year 2007 and first green year 2008

This report gives the summary results of the sowing year 2007 and first green year 2008 from testing of turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian golf greens. The total project period is 2007-2010.publishedVersio

Evaluation of turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian putting greens, 2007-2010. Results from the sowing year 2007

This report gives the results of the sowing year 2007 from testing of turfgrass varieties for use on Scandinavian putting greens. The total project period is 2007-2010.publishedVersio

SCANGREEN 2015-18: Turfgrass species, varieties, seed mixtures and seed blends for Scandinavian putting greens. Final results from a four year testing period

Denne tekst er sluttrapport for STERF-prosjektet: SCANGREEN 2015-1