Can organic agriculture feed the world? Well, no, probably not entirely. But a recent paper in Nature: Plants suggests that as a farming system, it scores better than conventional farming systems on many key indicators of sustainability. This, say the paper's authors, suggests organic systems should be playing a larger role in world food production than it currently is.
In this episode, I talk to Jonathan Wachtel, co-author of the study. We talk about sustainability metrics, current barriers to the expansion of organic systems, and why we shouldn't assume that organic farming alone can feed the world.  
The graphic we discuss in the episode is available at theruminant.ca. Graphic credit: John P. Reganold and Jonathan M. Wachter and Nature Plants.
 

e75: Organic Agriculture in the 21st Century

For people passionate about farming, gardening, food politics, food security, and the intersections among these topics. 

Jordan Marr, a certified organic farmer in British Columbia, interviews farmers, gardeners, academics, and journalists about stuff farmers and food system nerds care about. If where and how your food is produced matters to you, this podcast is produced for you!

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Science

In the summer of 2023, Bruce Lanphear, Professor of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, resigned his position as co-chair of a recently formed Science Advisory Committee of the PMRA, which regulates pesticide use in Canada. Dr. Lanphear felt he could no longer lend his credibility to the agency following disagreement about the Terms of Reference provided to Lanphear and seven other scientists comprising the committee.  Lanphear has been critical of aspects of Canada's pesticide oversight regime. I invited him on the show to discuss the topic.  You can read about Bruce's resignation here and here, or check out this google search.

A Critique of Canada's Pesticide Oversight

The Ruminant's first ever holiday special! Fellow Canadians, don't @ me. The original version of this piece was produced for Canadian Thanksgiving, for radio. 

I Threw Out The Turkey You Sold Me.

The US chicken industry is dominated by just a few very large, vertically integrated companies. They directly control every stage of chicken production from hatching to distribution, except that they outsource the riskiest stage--raising the birds from chick to mature bird--to independent farmers. In this episode, guest Patti Anderson of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future describes this system, explains how it traps many farmers in debt, and tells us about the most recent effort to make the system more just for farmers. After that: the farmer questionnaire! Some links related to the chicken conversation and the proposed rule changes: Patti suggests this blog post for a summary of the rule changes A recent op-ed in Civil Eats about the tournament system Here's an official summary of the proposed rule-changes

Big Chicken, Indebted Farmers

This ep: we introduce a new segment called Farm Sounds. This time: when the tradeoff that comes with a gain in efficiency on the farm doesn't feel worth it.  Plus another installment of The Farmer Questionnaire.

The Case for Slower

This episode I speak with Dr. Patrick Byrne, Professor Emeritus of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Colorado State University. Our topic: crop wild relatives, the forebears to all of the agricultural crops we love and depend on. Patrick helps us understand the relationship between, say, Teosinte and modern corn, and why the conservation of these wild relatives is crucial to the improvement of our crop cultivars.  Links:  Grin-U.org: a great repository for online learning materials on plant genetic resources conservation and use. Free Ebook: Crop Wild Relatives & Their Use in Plant Breeding Or some related videos instead Our guest on the Farmer Questionnaire in this episode was Tracy Robertson of Stony Mountain Farm in BC's Cariboo Region.

e75: Organic Agriculture in the 21st Century

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