Crop yields are often touted as the reason why we cannot scale up organic and regenerative systems, but evidence does not support this claim.
Some meta-analyses show that, on average, organic yields are lower than conventional. But the yield gap is most prevalent when practices used in organic mimic conventional, that is, when the letter of organic standards are followed using an input mentality akin to conventional chemical intensive agriculture.
Regenerative systems are based on a holistic approach to farming that aims to improve soil health, they are not simply replacing conventional chemicals with organic-approved chemicals. Actual yields in well-designed regenerative organic systems, rather than agglomerated averages, have been shown to outcompete conventional yields for almost all food crops including corn, wheat, rice, soybean and sunflower.
Researchers have found that “adoption of organic agriculture under agroecological conditions, where it performs best, may close the yield gap between organic and conventional systems”. In 2016, Rodale Institute’s organic no-till with manure system produced 200 bushels of corn per acre – a record-breaking yield for the organic system and well above the county average and the conventional corn yield that same year (140 bushels per acre).
Over a forty-year period there has been no statistical difference in yield between the organic and conventional systems within that trial. It has been noted that the organic yield gap also arises, in part, due to a lack of varieties adapted for organic systems. Conventional seeds, and the chemical systems they are locked in, have benefitted from immense R&D funding by private corporations and their university researcher partners, whereas ecological plant breeding for organic production has not.
Importantly, yields under organic systems are more resilient to the extreme weather accompanying climate change. As found in the long-running Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial, during drought years, yields are 30% to 100% higher in the organic systems. Crop resilience in a changing climate is an important economic co-benefit because “climate-resilient soil can stabilise productivity, reduce uncertainty, and produce an assured yield response even under extreme weather conditions”.
A strong evidence base has been building that shows regenerative systems bring a wide range of traditionally under-valued benefits that are equally as important as yields. When compared to conventional industrial agriculture, regenerative systems improve:
- Biodiversity abundance and species richness
- Soil health, including soil carbon
- Pesticide impacts on food and ecosystem
- Total farm outputs
- Nutrient density of outputs
- Resilience to climate shocks
- Provision of ecosystem services
- Resource use efficiency
- Job creation and farmworker welfare
- Farm profitability
- Rural community revitalisation.
The Myth of Food Shortage
There is no global food shortage. Nor are we on a trajectory for a global food shortage. World food production has been steadily rising, currently providing 2,900 calories per person per day, 22% more than is needed. The continued use of the trope that ‘we will soon need to feed nine billion people’ as justification for seeking ever greater yields is duplicitous. Hunger and food access are not yield issues. They are economic and social issues which, in large part, are the result of inappropriate agricultural and development policies that create and reinforce hunger.
We currently overproduce calories. In fact, we already produce enough calories to feed nine billion people. However, we do it in a manner that degrades soils and harms the environment, putting our health and future food production at risk. Worldwide hunger and food access are inequality issues that can be ameliorated in part by support for small-scale regenerative agriculture, both urban and rural. For those smallholder farmers for whom yield is a matter of eating or not eating, regenerative agriculture with few inputs is the best means of increasing yield as documented across tropical regions for more than 50 years by development agronomists.
Just over 55% of world crop production is eaten directly by people. Calorie availability could be increased by 70% by shifting crops away from animal feed and biofuels to direct human consumption. If livestock were raised on pasture instead of competing for arable land suited for human food production, “a 100% shift to organic agriculture could sustainably feed the human population in 2050, even with a yield gap”.
What’s more, over 40% of the current global harvest is wasted each year, largely before it ever reaches consumers. It’s clear we need to make environmentally conscious food choices, but we also need to focus resources on solving food waste, returning ruminants to pasture, and curtailing the use of fertile land for fuel production. When we take a holistic perspective on the food system, we see that yields alone mean little. Regenerative agriculture absolutely can feed the world. And it can do it while stabilising the climate, regenerating ecosystems, restoring biodiversity, and enhancing rural communities.
Source: Rodale Institute
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