Doesn't Sacrifice Bushels Organic farming could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and nitrate runoff without sacrificing crop yields, suggests a long-term study on corn published in tomorrow's Nature. The work found that organic methods for raising corn can be just as profitable as those relying heavily on synthetic chemicals.
Many consumers buy organic food because farmers grew the crops without pesticides.
But raising food without fertilizer is equally important for the environment, says Laurie Drinkwater, an ecologist at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. To examine the effects of farming without fertilizer, Drinkwater and two colleagues divided 15 acres of farmland randomly into three sections and planted corn, which normally requires heavy fertilization. They used synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in one field. In the other two they grew a winter crop of hairy vetch, a legume that fixes nitrogen from the soil, after harvesting the corn. They either fed the vetch to cattle and used the manure for fertilizer, or simply plowed the vetch back into the ground.