“Organic solution” message touches global warming, famine prevention thanks to Rodale Institute outreach

Headlines throughout 2008 featuring the stark human impacts of global warming and food shortages highlighted the Rodale Institute’s research showing that organic agriculture is a ready and available answer to these global problems.

“I found tremendous acceptance across the country to the positive contributions that organics can make to fight climate change and feed our world,” said Tim LaSalle, CEO at the Institute. “There’s no other set of practices that can do more, right now, than farming techniques that can store carbon in our fields, cut agri-chemical pollution and produce healthy food.”

A few highlights:

• The Institute’s advocacy for organics was captured in LaSalle’s December op-ed in the Des Moines Register:

“… the answer to the most pressing challenges of our time – worldwide hunger, climate change and human health – lies literally beneath our feet. By using organic agricultural methods and eliminating petroleum-based fertilizers and toxic chemical pest and weed control we build – rather than destroy – the biology of our soil.”

Rodale Institute research starkly shows the different environmental outcomes between chemical-based farming and regenerative organic farming. Efforts during 2008 highlighted the important ways that organic agriculture can impact the world. From the Register op-ed:

“When the soil is nurtured through organic methods it allows plants to naturally pull so much carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the soil that global warming can actually be reversed. Farms using conventional, chemical fertilizer release soil carbon into the atmosphere. Switching to organic methods turns a major global warming contributor into the single largest remedy of the climate crisis while eliminating toxic farm chemical drainage into our streams, rivers and aquifers.”

• In the first of two research reviews issued during the year, Regenerative Organic Farming: A Solution to Global Warming, the Institute laid out its case in these opening words:

“Agriculture is an undervalued and underestimated climate change tool that could be one of the most powerful strategies in the fight against global warming. Nearly 30 years of Rodale Institute soil carbon data show conclusively that improved global terrestrial stewardship--specifically including regenerative organic agricultural practices--can be the most effective currently available strategy for mitigating CO2 emissions.”

• Tim LaSalle was invited to participate in a climate change summit hosted by Al Gore.

• Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, included carbon-based farmer payments as one of the year’s “Big ideas” in a Huffington Post column. Pope cited LaSalle’s contention that “if we paid farmers for the additional carbon stored by converting from conventional to regenerative, low-chemical agriculture (which his studies put at more than three tons of CO2/acre), the agricultural sector could potentially sequester 25 percent of current U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.”

• In the second research review, Institute leaders marshaled the compelling evidence for the Organic Green Revolution to take the lead in agricultural, environmental and famine-prevention planning. They stated:

“We can feed the world and must restore ecological health to our planet. To do this we need to launch an Organic Green Revolution – that fundamentally changes the way we grow our food to maximize yield while mitigating climate change, restoring clean water, building soils, and protecting agricultural production during times of drought.”

• Strong affirmation for the potential of organics came from two global study efforts, further solidifying the foundation for expanding the Institute’s organic solutions. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) panel was convened as part of an intergovernmental effort supported by over 400 experts. It said current agricultural approaches have left unequal benefits and high social and environmental costs. Farming leaders should try using “natural processes” like crop rotation and organic fertilizers to reverse these negative trends. The authors call for more attention to small-scale farmers and utilization of sustainable agricultural practices, specifically mentioning organic farming as an option.

• The UN Environment Program (UNEP) found that organic farming can feed the world. Its analysis of 114 farming projects in 24 African countries found that organic or near-organic practices resulted in a yield increase of more than 100 percent compared to industrialized, chemical-based approaches.

• The Institute and The Organic Center partnered to launch a national awareness campaign on the problem-solving potential of organics, with a kick-off event called Ripe for Revolution, the Organic Solution in New York City. Executives from these two national leaders in organic research and advocacy were joined by other leaders in the organic community, including Maria Rodale, chair of Rodale, Inc. She said, “Organic is the number one way to stop global warming, it’s the number one way to protect our health and it’s the number one way to protect our children.”

• Closer to home, the Institute’s familiarity with how organic farming works, how it expands economic and environmental benefits, and how farmers make the organic transition was key to the successful effort by Pennsylvania State Representative David Kessler to propose support for farmers who convert to certified organic agriculture. The state’s pilot effort will support farmers during their three-year transition with payments and technical assistance, and assess the benefits of the change.

• Tim LaSalle’s name was circulated as a potential candidate for secretary of the USDA as an early favorite of the progressive community, reflecting keen interest from many sectors in seeing organics take a prominent role in the Obama administration’s approach to U.S. farming and food policy.

• Institute Farm Director Jeff Moyer was elected to chair the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the nation’s highest citizen panel that provides sector-wide input into the development and enforcement of regulations for organic crop and livestock production, processing and handling.

• Outreach on how organics offers opportunities to the next generation of urban, suburban and rural food and fiber producers was a big hit at the Future Farmers of America annual convention in Indianapolis. One exciting off-shoot of that visit is the Institute’s first-ever essay contest. Vocational agricultural students are asked to write about this question: “How Can Farming Restore Human and Ecological Health?”

The Institute plans to work in 2009 through new partnerships and contacts to extend and deepen the use of organic agriculture in the United States and in the world. The human and ecological benefits of organics are even more important in difficult economic times where long-term sustainability is key.