Feeding theWorld – The Contribution of IFOAM Principles - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 83

￿ Increases P-efficiency (crop's capacity to use phosphorous) (e.g., Martin et al.

2007 ; Onwonga et al. 2008 ; Dangour et al. 2009 );

￿ Increases yields through agro-ecological strategies (Pretty and Hine 2001 ;

Scialabba and Hattaam 2002 ; Pretty 2003 , 2006 );

￿ Contributes to resilience in the face of climate changes (e.g., seed and crop

diversity; soil cover; organic manure) (Borron 2006 ; Scialabba and Müller-
Lindenlauf 2010 );

￿ Reduces the risks from the spread of epidemic diseases because of the dispersed

production footprint and the bio-diverse practices (Van Bruggen 1995 ); and

￿ Fosters regionalized, and highly diverse and healthy food, because it is adapted

to specific agro-ecological zones (Heaton 2001 ).

Yet many of these statements are disputed and counterarguments from both
sides are continuously appearing. On the issue of yield, it is important to keep in
mind that certified organic production is practiced on scarcely 1 % of the world's
cultivated land (Willer and Kilcher 2011 ). Additionally, there is not much known
about the performance of organic in comparison with conventional under same
climate and soil conditions. Moreover, as Halberg et al. ( 2006a ) note, there is little
agreement about the different methods of estimating organic yield under different
agro-ecological conditions (see also Connor 2008 ; de Ponti et al. 2012 ). Organic
yields are generally estimated to be 20-30 % lower from those on non-organic farms
(IFAD 2005 ; Pimentel et al. 2005 ; Badgley et al. 2007 ; Edwards 2007 ; Erb et al.
2009 ; Edwards et al. 2010 ). Furthermore, the interpretation of some trials might
be either too optimistic (Badgley et al. 2007 ), or underestimated, or simply not
identified (Trewavas 2001 ). Nevertheless, on-going research documents significant
potential of organic practices to increase yields. In Austria, for example, the yield
of the main arable crops (wheat, potato and maize) increased between 2007 and
2011 by approximately 30 % (Lebensministerium 2012 ). Furthermore, a series of
promising sustainable and low-input systems, similar to the organic approach, in
developing countries demonstrate a significant potential to increase yields without
damaging either social systems (Scialabba and Hattaam 2002 ) or nature (Pretty et al.
2006 ).
In short, it is not known how much of the reported “lower organic yields” are
a function of the limited agronomic research and the limited data, specifically
with respect to developing countries. Organic farming has never benefitted from
the same level of research and capacity building or funding and policy support as
high-input agriculture (Niggli et al. 2008 ). As a result, the data from detailed large
scale modeling to assess the possibility for organic production to “feed the world”
is limited (Halberg et al. 2006a ).
It must also be acknowledged that we lack convincing empirical evidence about
the productivity of the organic paradigm to feed the world. Agronomic research on
organic farming pales in comparison to research on conventional farming. There
are no serious empirical, socio-economic or policy studies that identify alternative
scenarios from the perspective of organic agriculture for any region of the world.
The scenarios that have been proposed use only very selective samples of data