The Environment Series Part 2: Organic Farming and Climate Change

Because of climate change droughts will occur with greater frequency

We can no longer deny the adverse effects of global warming, especially the effect on food security and agriculture. Climate change leads to changes in weather patterns, including increased occurrences of drought, flooding, and insect infestations. This spells out bad news for feeding the world's growing population because crop yields will drop significantly. Ironically, conventional agriculture contributes about 30% of greenhouse gasses, making agriculture a significant contributor to climate change. The bulk of the gasses is not emitted through operating tractors or other machinery, but through the use of petroleum in fertilizers and pesticides. According to an article written by Anna Lappe, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer releases large amounts of nitrous oxide, a primary threat to the ozone layer, into the atmosphere. This may be reason enough to highlight organic agriculture as a powerful tool to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, but there are many other ways that organic farming methods contribute to mitigating the adverse global warming.

NO₂: (nitrous oxide): Because of methods like crop rotation, which alternates the planting of legumes with regular crops, the soil is rich with nitrogen and less escapes to the atmosphere because of the improvement in soil structure. Organic agriculture soil is also more aerated, and have lower free nitrogen concentrations.

CH₄: (methane) Biomass isn't burned, so this gas isn't released into the air. However, some scientists argue that organic farming requires more cows so more methane released. More research is being done in bio gas and composting as a method to lower methane gas.

CO₂: (carbon dioxide) In a study conducted by the Rodale Institute over almost 20 years, finding showed that organic farming promotes carbon sequestering, or the removal of carbon gasses from the atmosphere and storing in the soil. Organic farming is built on the principle of incorporating more organic matter like mulch and manure into the soil, the soil's ability to absorb carbon increases. This means that organic farming fields have the ability to absorb carbon and hold them in the earth, instead of escaping as gasses and depleting the ozone layer. 

Eating organic is more than just healthy. It's a system that can help create global change and help tackle the most pressing issues, including ones as big and seemingly irreversible as climate change.

Resources:

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/susagri/2010/susagri125.htm

https://www.fibl-shop.org/shop/pdf/mb-1500-climate-change.pdf

http://www.thinkgreenliveclean.com/2010/05/can-organic-farming-end-global-warming/

http://www.compassnaturalmarketing.com/2010/09/17/organic-agriculture-a-cool-solution-to-global-warming/

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/ob_31