Source:  www.ifoam.org

Organic Agriculture mitigates climate change because it:

Reduces greenhouse gases, especially nitrous oxide, as no chemical nitrogen fertilizers are used and nutrient losses are minimized.

Stores carbon in soil and plant biomass by building organic matter,encouraging agro-forestry and forbidding the clearance of primary ecosystems.

Minimizes energy consumption by 30-70% per unit of land by eliminating the energy required to manufacture synthetic fertilizers, and by using internal farm inputs, thus reducing fuel used for transportation.

Organic Agriculture helps farmers adapt to climate change because it:

Prevents nutrient and water loss through high organic matter content and soil covers, thus making soils more resilient to floods, droughts and land degradation processes.

Preserves seed and crop diversity, which increases crop resistance to pests and disease. Maintenance of diversity also helps farmers evolve new cropping systems to adapt to climatic changes.

Minimizes risk as a result of stable agro-ecosystems and yields, and lower production costs.

Conventional agriculture contributes to climate change because it:

Uses synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that require significant amounts of energy to manufacture.

Applies excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizer that is released as nitrous oxide.

Operates intensive livestock holdings that overproduce manure and methane.

Relies on external, soy-based animal feed that requires large amounts of fuel to travel thousands of kilometers to reach the farm.

Mines the earth of the nutrients needed to sustain production, thereby leading to the clearing of rainforest and “slash and burn” techniques that reduce carbon storage and release huge amounts of carbon dioxide from burning vegetation.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Organic News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.