From PDines@compuserve.comSat May 31 10:51:16 1997 Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 20:41:33 -0400 From: Patricia Dines To: Patricia Dines <73652.1202@compuserve.com> Subject: Rodale 15 year trials: organic farming finishes first [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] Thought this might be of interest to you - P. Dines --- FORWARD --- ORGANIC FARMING FINISHES FIRST One of the commonly heard arguments in defense of chemical farming is that it is more productive than organic agriculture. Proponents of toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers claim that farmers could not grow enough food with organic methods to feed the people of the Earth, therefore, chemical use is necessary and justified. But, one long-term study indicates this might not be the case. The longest-running experiment in the U.S. comparing chemical and organic farming is the Rodal Institute's Farming Systems Trial. For over 15 years, it has compared three farming systems side by side at the Rodale Institute Experimental Farm in Pennsylvania. One field has been farmed by conventional rotation of corn and soybeans, using chemical fertilizers and herbicides. Two other fields rotate corn, soybeans, grains, and hay - one using legumes for fertilizer, and the other manure, and both using mechanical weed controls. The organic fields produced the same yields as the chemical fields in normal years and greater yields in dry years. The soil quality of the organic fields was higher - holding more water and air, and suffering less erosion - enabling their organic fields to out-produce the chemical ones during years with low rainfall. In 1995, for example, the organic, legume-based system produced 148 bushels of corn per acre, compared to 115 bushels with the chemical system. SOURCE: Spectrum: The Wholistic News Magazines, May/June 1997, p. 6. BASED ON INFO IN: Organic Gardening magazine, April 1997. NOTE: Spectrum is a great source of lots of short wholistic news/info summaries, like the above, on health, environment, society, mind and spirit, etc. It's a print periodical, only $20/yr. CONTACT INFO: wholenews@msn.com, (919) 493-2181, 3519 Hamstead Court, Durham NC 27707.