Organic Farming as Productive as Conventional

Organic alfalfa and wheat, and to a lesser extent corn and soybeans, can be as productive as conventional counterparts that use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, according to a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study published in the Agronomy Journal.

The researchers compared results on Wisconsin farms over 8-13 years, and said their results should apply to prairie across the upper Midwest.

"Organic forage crops yielded as much or more dry matter as their conventional counterparts with quality sufficient to produce as much milk as the conventional systems," according to the American Society of Agronomy. "And organic grain crops: corn, soybean, and winter wheat produced 90% as well as their conventionally managed counterparts."

As new organic weed-control techniques are developed and employed, organic farms could outpace conventional farm yields, though the authors acknowledged that new advances in conventional farming could do just the opposite. The research was released as Monsanto, the seed and agro-chemical giant, forecasted yet another increase to its earnings forecast, based largely on the sales of genetically modified seeds and herbicides.

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