From dgposey on Fri, January 04, 2008

I’m all for slow food and buying locally, but … I can’t help but pose this question:
This blog post suggests that per capita arable land is rapidly decreasing.  Doesn’t that mean that we should try to get the most out of the arable land that we have left, so that we can feed everybody?  In other words, shouldn’t we be using the intensive agricultural techniques that agribusiness touts?
I would like to get a discussion going here…

From bklyncupcake on Fri, January 04, 2008

yes, i agree that this implies that we should make the most out of arable land. however, there is little data to support that intensive agricultural techniques that agribusiness promotes are actually the most high-yielding. Check out this study by the Leopold Center which actually shows organic methods to outperform “conventional” in terms of yield as well as a number of other factiors (http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2007/organic_111307.htm). A quick Google search ( I used ‘yields organic conventional’) reveals many more…Rodale and Science Daily chime in on the issue, as well as a number of university research departments.