Top Foods for Pesticides/ Organic Farming Reduces Global Warming

Researchers at The Rodale Institute recently concluded a 23- year long study, the Farming Systems Trial, and reaffirmed that organic farming practices can help battle the effects of global warming.

“Organic farming systems increase soil carbon 15-28%, accumulating about 1000 pounds of carbon per acre foot of soil each year (equal to 3500 pounds of CO2 per acre removed from the air and sequestered into soil organic matter),” say the researchers. And organic farming practices emit one third fewer greenhouse gases because the energy required to produce pesticides and fertilizers is eliminated.

Other findings from the field trials, which compared three cropping systems on 12 acres (conventional, organic manure-based and organic legume-based):

* after a four year transition period, organic corn and soybean yields were comparable to those of conventional systems.

* production costs were 26% lower in organic systems.

* in drought years, corn yields in the legume-based system were 22% higher than for the conventional system.

* organic farming increases soil nitrogen levels 8-15% and reduces nitrogen loss than may occur through leaching.

Organic crop systems perform better during climate extremes, both for drought and during excessive rainfall. “Organic crop management techniques will be a valuable resource in an era of climate variability, providing soil and crop characteristics that can better buffer environmental extremes,” notes researchers DW. Lotter, R. Seidel and W. Liebhardt.

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On another note, The Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Stonyfield Farm have collaborated to produce a “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce”. EWG researchers analyzed over 100,000 US government pesticide test results and found 192 different pesticides on 46 popular fruits and vegetables.

Stonyfield created a wallet-sized guide which lists the 12 produce items that are highest and lowest in pesticide residues.

In alphabetical order: