Organic Farming

Pesticides are bad news.

They hurt the environment and they hurt people's health.

Regulations on their use are also questionable.

There is an easy answer -- organic farming.

Greenpeace advocates a move away from industrial-scale agriculture towards locally-focused and sustainable models.

Study after study has shown the social and environmental benefits of sustainable and organic farming in both the affluent North and the impoverished South.

These offer a practical way of restoring agricultural land degraded by the chemicals and over-production of industrial farming, allowing family farmers to fight poverty and hunger.

Recent research shows that organic farming supports greater biodiversity in the environment, conserves soil fertility and stability better than non-organic farming, and does not pose any risk of water pollution from pesticides.

Organic arable production was found to be 35% more energy efficient and organic dairy production was about 74% more efficient per unit of output than non-organic production.

Studies in China have shown that organic farming is better able to deal with the adverse effects of climate change.

Organic agriculture also means better standards of animal welfare.

Organic crops were also found to contain higher levels of some nutrients than their non-organic counterparts.

Another report on organic agriculture in several countries reported that crop yields improved with the implementation of organic methods.

In China, farmers in Yuxei in the Dabie mountains have successfully converted to organic agriculture in recent years.

Clearly there are both human health benefits and environmental benefits from using organic agriculture.

Greenpeace supports organic agriculture as a sustainable path to agriculture development.