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Hidden cost of organic farms

Author(s): Robin Meadows


Source: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Vol. 8, No. 9 (November 2010), p. 454
Published by: Ecological Society of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29546151
Accessed: 28-02-2016 23:34 UTC

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DISPATCHES DISPATCHES

STasmanian logging to end


Claire Miller

Logging will be phased out in

Tasmania's native forests, thanks to a


historic deal struck in October, ending

more than 30 years of bitter con?


frontation between the industry and

environmentalists. The agreement

between "green" groups and the

servation Foundation, Melbourne)


believes Gunns responded to commer?
cial realities, with international finan?

cial backers for its controversial pro?


posed pulp mill in northern Tasmania
insisting on environmental best prac?
tices, the use of certified plantation
timber, and recognition as a good cor?

porate citizen. "They haven't been


A new deal will end destructive logging in

National Association of Forest Indus? Tasmania.


tries allows some selective extraction

able to establish a native-forest-based

pulp mill because of past disregard for

overwhelming community opposition


that damaged their social license to
will put an end to wholesale forest may well mean transitioning to [tree] operate. It's time to look at forests in
plantations, but move we must, for the Tasmania in a new way, because the
destruction to feed pulp mills.
A moratorium on logging high-con? conflict must end; too many people
old way - a battle between jobs and
servation-value forests will be phased have been financially and emotionally forests - has protected neither. It rup?
in over 3 months, while a timeframe injured in the Australian forest wars."
tured the community, failed to protect
for high-end furniture and crafts, but

is not part of our future", he said. "This

for all logging to end is negotiated.


According to L'Estrange, the com?
jobs, and is destroying Tasmania's nat?
This follows Australia's largest timber pany's future lies in plantation hard? ural heritage", says Hesketh.
company, the Tasmanian-based Gunns,
woods and softwoods, and processing
L'Estrange has repositioned Gunns
announcing in September that it will of forest products. The company had since taking over from John Gay - the
entered negotiations to transition man behind a 5-year lawsuit against
no longer engage in native-forest log?
ging. In September, Gunns' Chief out of native forests, and was open to 20 conservationists, including Greens

Executive Greg L'Estrange told an

ideas from "all parties". "A lot of

industry conference in Melbourne that

good ideas can come from the people


we used to throw rocks and brickbats
at", he continued.

they had lost the public debate and the


time had come to get out of woodchip
ping old-growth forests. "Native forest

Lindsay Hesketh (Australian Con

Senator Bob Brown, claiming dam?


ages to the business and its reputa?
tion. The case collapsed this year after

costing Gunns more than AU$4 mil?

lion (-US$3.9 million). ?

Hidden cost of organic

ture). Currently, 71% of UK land is


agricultural and about 3% of that is

bird species are largely unaffected.

Robin Meadows

farmed organically. Calling wildland


to-organic farmland conversions the

types of environment-friendly farms


are common in Europe, with the UK's

**hidden cost of hurting wildlife some?

?435 million [about US$691 million]


2008 budget for agri-environment

farms

Although organic farms have more


butterflies than conventional farms,

wholesale adoption of organic farm?


ing could be worse for butterflies

overall, according to a new study


published online in September in
Ecology Letters (doi: 10.11 ll/j.1461
0248.2010.01528.x). Because organ?
ic farms often produce smaller yields,

they generally require more land to


match the output of conventional

where else", the researchers con?

cluded that butterflies would benefit


most from a combination of conven?
tional farms and nature reserves that
are managed to promote biodiversity.

Incentives for organic and other

schemes dwarfing the roughly ?80 mil?

lion [about US$127 million] spent on


the rest of nature conservation pro?
grams throughout the country. Jenny

Number crunching revealed that


the soundness of this approach

Hodgson (University of York, UK),

depends partly on the relative yield


of organic to conventional crops,
suggesting that it will be advanta?

sions "neighboring farmers clubbing

the primary author of the study, envi?

together to achieve a larger area of


restored habitat, or setting up a part?

farming; thus, embracing large-scale

geous below a threshold of 87%.

nership with a conservation organua

organic agriculture could mean the


further conversion to cropland of
natural grasslands that best support

Many organic crops fall well below


this threshold, however; the yield

Additional strategies for boosting

butterfly diversity and abundance.


The researchers compared butterfly

populations in grassland, organic

of organically farmed winter cereal,


for example, is only about 45% that

of the conventionally farmed crop.

tion" to protect resident biodiversity.


farmland biodiversity without sacrific?
ing crop yields could include the adop?
tion of agricultural practices such as

The particular wildlife species is


also a factor: organic farming is

in the UK, focusing on two common

even more beneficial for wildflow

management. "For the future, it is not

field types (winter cereal and pas

ers than for butterflies, while most

ventional farming", notes Hodgson. ?

farm, and conventional farm habitats

minimum tillage and integrated pest


just a choice between organic and con?

www.frontiersinecology.org ? The Ecological Society of America

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