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Organic Farming: The Reality

Organic Farming: The Reality. By Josh Sonnabend. Background on Organic Farming. Organic Farming: USDA Consumer Brochure-Food that is produced without using conventional pesticides, fertilizers, or bioengineering $ 2.6 billion to $26.7 billion increase in sales since 1997

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Organic Farming: The Reality

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  1. Organic Farming: The Reality By Josh Sonnabend

  2. Background on Organic Farming • Organic Farming: • USDA Consumer Brochure-Food that is produced without using conventional pesticides, fertilizers, or bioengineering • $2.6 billion to $26.7 billion increase in sales since 1997 • This is unlikely to continue in the long term due to a variety of factors including: • Economics • Inconsistency in health benefit data • The major growth in the world population

  3. The Economics/Agronomics • Organic production yields 25% less on average • Producers must receive a high premium on products • Generally higher premiums around population centers

  4. Perceived Health Benefits • Although it is widely believed that organic food is healthier/safer, data is not supportive of this claim • Indian Journal of Medical Research: “What is clear from our analysis, however, is that there is currently no evidence of major differences in nutritional content between production regimens and from a public health perspective, the differences that we did identify are not important in the context of a normal healthy diet”

  5. World Population Growth • Currently, the world population sits just under 7 billion • Expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 • 2 billion person increase needs to be fed on a virtually fixed amount of land

  6. Shift in Diets • The world trend is an increase in the amount of meat in our diets • Requires more grain to feed livestock • Cattle feed conversion ratio • 6:1calories • Hog feed conversion ratio • 3.4-3.6:1calories

  7. Conclusions • Organic agriculture, while possibly having its place as a niche market, will not become the major practice in the United States due to: • Reduced yields leading to a less competitive economic ability for producers • The inability to find data supporting organic food’s perceived health benefits • The rapidly growing world population • The increase in meat consumption per capita worldwide

  8. Sources • Reubold, Todd. "http://www1.umn.edu/news/news- releases/2012/UR_CONTENT_383487.html." . University of Minnesota, 26 Apr 2012. Web. 8 Apr 2013. • Dena M. Bravata, et al. "Are Organic Foods Safer Or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives?." Annals Of Internal Medicine 157.5 (2012): 348-366. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. • Ricardo Uauy, et al. "Nutritional composition & health benefits of organic foods -- using systematic reviews to question the available evidence." Indian Journal of Medical Research Apr. 2010: 478+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. • Goodman, Ryan. "http://agricultureproud.com/2012/02/06/cattlemens-college-cattle- feed-efficiency/." . Agriculture Proud, 6 Feb 2012. Web. 8 Apr 2013. • Losinger, William. United States. Department of Agriculture.Feed-conversion ratio of finisher pigs in the USA. Fort Collins, CO: , 1998. Print.

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