Why is agriculture bad for the Earth? Does organic farming make it better?

In my last post, I responded to a CNN article that claimed that organic food was not healthier than conventional food. In the second half of the article, the author mentions a Scientific American article that says that organic farming is no better, and may be even worse, than conventional agriculture.

You can find the article here, but I address each of the articles main points.

1. Organic farms still use pesticides.

Yes, this is absolutely true. There are a number of pesticides derived from natural sources that certified organic farmers are allowed to use. The thing to keep in mind is that organic certification is really the lowest common denominator. There are any number of practices that environmentally conscious farmers use, and the USDA's definition is the minimum that everyone can agree upon. I am certain that there are many farmers forgo certification because they disagree with the USDA's policies and because the cost and bureaucracy of certification puts small farms at a disadvantage.

The best thing to do is to talk to you farmer. That's part of why the farmers market is so great! You get to know the people who grow your food, ask them where their farm is, what their philosophy is, and so on.

2. Organic food is not healthier.
3. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are good.

Please refer to my previous posts where I address this issue and also talk about the Precautionary Principle. 

4. Organic farms produce less than conventional ones, and so take up more land.

I agree with the general logic behind this claim. Not using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers will reduce yield. One way to make up for reduced yield is to increase the amount of land under use. More land devoted to agriculture means less land for forests, grasslands, and so on, which is bad for biodiversity, etc.

However (!!!) this really only applies to monocrop farming. From wikipedia: "Monocropping is the high-yield agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence rotation through other crops." It is also referred to as factory farming, and factory farming is pretty bad, even if it is organic.

Again, another reason to support farmers markets and CSAs and the rest. Go ask your farmer if they rotate their crops, if they use biological forms of pest control, if they use pesticides and if so, do they sound responsible about it? If nothing else, you may have a short and entertaining conversation with someone with a different perspective on the world, and what is so bad about that?

And really, we've already gone beyond organic. I try to practice FLOSS: fresh, local, organic, seasonal, and sustainable.

Conclusion: certified organic farming is not necessarily better for the environment than conventional, but it probably is in most cases. If you have the choice, buy your food from the farmers market and have a conversation with your farmer about his or her practices.