Reply #9: Hopeful, but ... [View All]

... nearly every similar report, and there have been many of them in the last year or so, have been entirely theoretical. Dr. Perfecto's work appears to be theoretical, too, but I have not found her original work. (Can whoever finds it first, post the link? And please be mindful that most papers are embargoed to prevent non-academics from reading them.)

On the other hand, it should take only 2-3 years to prove that intensive organic agriculture can outperform factory farming. We have at least a dozen world-class ag universities in North America and thousands of scientists, students, and individual farmers who still work their own land.

The next step will be the most difficult -- to implement these techniques throughout the world. I am not so concerned with the corporations as with the problems that led to low yields before the Green Revolution. Organic farming showed only scant potential in the 1960s. If we were wrong, or if there have been innovations in the last 40 years, this is the best time to make them.

Whether from universal poverty caused by a world-wide power-down or from the demands made by widespread famine, there will probably be many people who want to grow food in the coming several generations. The sooner we can prove it works, the better off we will be. And if we find that it doesn't work, we will have a few extra years to develop methods that do.

--p!