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Published on Saturday, October 22, 2011 by the Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/research-shows-organics-are-no-longer-marginal-132370223.html
by Laura Rance
Organic farmers and their customers have had to put up with a lot of crap from their fellow producers over the years.
The labels are one thing, such as "crunchy granola set" or "hippie dippies" or "organic freaks."
But by far, the biggest insult was simply being dismissed as inefficient and ineffective when it comes to the serious question of how to best feed the world's growing population.
The mainstream industry and research establishment have long written off organic agriculture because of the widely held belief it can't keep up to the productivity of conventional systems. And a few years ago that was right.
The reason organic foods could command a hefty premium in the marketplace, and why some argued they were only accessible to the wealthy elite, was yields have tended to be lower.
Critics could justifiably claim that to feed the world using organic agriculture, more of the earth's surface would have to be converted to crops, and that would be bad for the environment.
For example, a recent report CropLife Canada financed concluded that without pesticides, fertilizers and biotechnology, Canada would need another 37 million acres of cropland -- the equivalent of the total annual cropped area of Saskatchewan, or four times that of Ontario -- to produce the same amount of food.
The report says crop-protection products, fertilizer and biotechnology advancements add a whopping $7.9 billion to the Canadian economy.
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