Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

CONTENTS:
Introduction.. Page 2 Organic Farming.. Page 3

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Organic and Intensive farming- Introduction

For a long time there had been a debate as to which of the two types of farming; organic or intensive is better. Following the recent growth in organic farming (8% in 2010, a dramatic growth compared to that of the food industry on a whole which grew at less than %) the debate has once again erupted. Organic farming is different from intensive as it follows a stricter set of guidelines as stated by the European commission. These guidelines include strict limits on the amount of Pesticides, Fertilisers, antibiotics for livestock and other inputs. They also prohibits the use of Genetically Modified Organisms and make sure animals are treated kindly, prior to slaughter. (15) These differences provide some arguments as to why organic is better. For example people are aware there might be extra nutritious value and those who care for the welfare of animals. (For example those against battery farm chickens) may prefer to eat organic. However as intensive farming does use Pesticides and Fertilisers it means intensive farmers can increase the amount of crops per land, and dont need to do crop rotation like intensive farmers have to. Also with livestock they can increase the amount of animals per amount of land as it is not necessary to give each animal as much space as in organic farming. So overall I hope to study the styles of farming more closely and then at the end come to a conclusion as to which is the best taking into consideration other studies and articles along the way.

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

An introduction to organic farming

To reflect on the arguments for and against organic farming, a person must first understand what organic farming is and the rules and principles it has. Many people have misguided beliefs that organic farming uses no pesticides when in fact they are permitted to use a range of pesticides which are chemically inorganic and industrially produced but qualify because they are naturally occurring [17]. Therefore, in order to fully explain the guidelines and principles organic farming holds, I have made a list from the European Union website, and the Federal Organic Foods Production Act outlining the typical organic farm practices:

Use of wide crop rotation in order to work with nature and obtain a high yield with the available resources. Very strict limitations on the amount of synthetic fertiliser, synthetic Pesticides antibiotics for livestock and other inputs. A complete ban on the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) The use of resources found on-site, for example the use of animal manure as fertiliser or animal feed that may be produced on site Selecting animals and plants on the basis that they are more resistant to certain types of disease or adapted to the local environment and conditions Keeping livestock in an environment that Is free-range, open-air and feeding them with organic feed
[15] [18]

This list comes from two references the first being the European Commission, which contributes to European Legislation on organic farming and has a large research budget some of which is applied to agricultural and environmental science to determine how legislation should be formed. Therefore it is likely to have reliable information as it will have been gathered from the research it has funded. The second source is the Federal Organic Foods Production act of 1990, as stated by the US government, a reliable source as it will have been researched thoroughly before being made into an act.

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Crop Rotation

All crops must take up nutrients from the soil in order to grow successfully. Therefore as crops grow they take nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus from the soil. Therefore if the same type of crop is repeatedly grown on the same spot the resources of the mineral it needs to grow will be heavily depleted, leaving the land much less fertile and new crops to grow poorly. There are two ways we have found to resolve the problem. The first being adding nutrients back into the soil with chemicals, otherwise known as adding fertilisers and the second being crop rotation. Crop rotation is the process of alternating the crops you grown on a particular area of land in a cycle. This usually takes place over 2 to 3 years, depending on the farmer. An example of a plant cycle is showed in the picture on the left.
In year 1 we would plant some peas, or another member of the bean family such as clover, as these contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria which can add nitrogen back into the soil Then in the second year you would plant a crop that needs lots of nitrates such as cabbage which will then take lots of nutrients out of the ground. Then in the third year you can plant a crop like carrots which needs little nitrogen to grow. So finally you can start the cycle again. [8] [23]

Year 1

In this way an organic farmer can successfully grow crops without the use of chemicals that could possibly be harmful to people. Another way that organic farmers can put nutrients back in the soil Is by doing what is known as green manure. This is the practice of planting a nitrogen-fixing plant, such as clover and then leaving the plant to rot, thus adding more nitrogen to the soil for the following crop [8] Much of the information I used to help me on crop rotation was gained from the CGP textbook (reference 8). This source is reliable as it is from a textbook used to teach GCSE students and trusted to contain the correct information and would have been looked through by many people with knowledge in the area, so any mistakes would have been reported and corrected. The other main problem in farming, which was resolved by crop rotation, is the issue of diseases and pests such as insects that might affect a particular type of crop building up in the
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Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

soil or around the area. Crop Rotation resolved this as if the crops are changed regularly and not all the crops planted there are susceptible to a particular pest or disease, it prevents a buildup.

(Find case study about crop rotation)

Natural Fertilisers

Organic farmers cannot use a great amount of synthetic fertiliser as a principle. So instead, organic farmers must use other, usually older methods to keep the ground fertile. For example, green manure [8] or allowing a plant such as clover to decay on the field, therefore putting nitrates back into the soil for the next crop. Also another method of keeping the land fertile is the use of manure to increase the nutrients in the soil. Manure helps as it contains nutrients that can be used by plants. Synthetic vs artificial fertiliser

Treatment of animals
Treatment of Livestock

Organic farms (as approved by the soil association standards) also have to meet other standards on how their livestock are treated. They must not perform factory farming, use drugs or vaccines routinely, feed their animals Genetically modified food or growth hormones. They also must make sure the animals get lots of outdoor space and fresh air, encourage the animals to behave normally and minimise stress to the best they can. [24] Organic farmers aim to prevent disease rather than cure it. As many Intensive farmers give antibiotics routinely to all animals which is said to weakens an animals immune system, increasing reliance on drugs. [24] Meaning that as animals are routinely given antibiotics they dont need in order to prevent illness, their immune system is weakened thus increasing their need for more. Instead organic farmers only give animals antibiotics when they are ill so their immune systems still work well. Must write about advantages of free-range etc.

Organic feed

As some of the main points of organic farming are the prevention of disease and prevention of cruelty to animals, the European commission have stated that all animal feed must be organic itself. Also from the 1st January 2008, farmers had to feed their animals 100% organic feed in order to classify it as organic, and use the organic label. [15] Organic feed legislation states that growth hormones, GMOs and synthetic amino acids cannot be used in feed. Also antibiotics cannot be added to animal feed
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Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Extra nutritious Value

There are some arguments pointing toward the fact that organic food is better for you. For example, in a study undertaken by Newcastle University found a general trend showing organic food contained more antioxidants and less fatty acids. (13) This would call into question the findings of the Food Standards Agency who said that There is no evidence available at present to be able to say that organic foods are significantly different in terms of their safety and nutritional content (1). The study, when shown in more detail showed that organic milk had between 50 and 80% more antioxidants than intensively produced milk. It also showed Organic wheat, potatoes, cabbage, onions, and lettuce had between 20% and 40% more nutrients.(13) This source is reliable as it was from the BBC news website, a national corporation, and therefore would have been read by many people and therefore possibly corrected, if wrong, by many people also. However the fact that the author of the piece is not mentioned is questionable as you dont know who wrote it, possibly being anyone from a specialist in the field, to a complete novice who wouldnt know what they were writing about. Also the author has mentioned issues in the collected data itself saying that there were some variations in the research and that it had yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal meaning that it was yet to have passed through the independent scrutiny of other qualified experts. This mean other scientists might in the future deem it unsuitable because of too many variations in the data, not a strong enough case to prove that organic produce definitely was nutritionally better than intensive. The study was repeated several times on farms (all adjacent to each other) all over Europe.(13) This increases the accuracy of the data collected as wherever there was an organic farm there was also a non-organic farm so would have the same type of farmland. Also as there were multiple locations of the farmland we can be certain that the organic produce is better for you was only true of one location, or only true in one location but as there werent many other locations it increased the average significantly. However as all the farms were adjacent to each other and one would have been using pesticides and fertilizers and the like, one possibility would be that there was some contamination chemicals. This could mean that the organic farm may have then had some chemicals it wasnt meant to have potentially depleting some of the nutrients it may have had.

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Organic farming also has its disadvantages. Examples being that the price for many people is too much, and organic food produces a lower yield than conventional farming. Although some people have argued in defence of organic farming that on the whole intensive food is almost the same as organic food and prices are getting closer, as well as saying that even if organic farming cannot equal the yield of intensive farming, it could still feed the entire world.
Price of Organic farming

One main criticism of organic farming is its price. Many people

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Pesticides

Pesticides are substances used to destroy pests (for example insects or other organisms) that could be harmful to crops or livestock. As pesticides are used to control pest population, they must be toxic, but this means in some cases pesticides can have negative effects on not just insects but other animals, even humans. This has caused many people to switch from eating intensively grown foods to organic as organic has stricter limits on the amount of pesticides allowed to be used. As Pesticides are toxic, issues have been raised as to whether it is safe to have them around our food or spray them on the whole. Some of the main queries as to the safety of Pesticides include; The effects they cause to workers, effects on the environment, effects on people consuming food with pesticide residue, effects on children and the effect of pesticides that may be leaked into water.

Pesticide- Effects on Workers

Between one and three agricultural workers per every 100 worldwide suffer from acute pesticide poisoning. [19] People who have prolonged exposure to pesticides (such as farmers) are at many different types of health risks. In a study taken to quantify adverse effects of pesticides on the rice ecosystem and farm household many negative effects were found that could apply to farmers and sprayers of pesticides. The study stated prolonged exposure to pesticides could lead to cardiopulmonary disorders; neurological and haematological symptoms, and skin disease. Any of these symptoms could lower productivity due to a farmers absence from work during treatment and recuperation and impaired capacity to do a full load of work, or both. [20] This means that not only could pesticides cause illness to farmers working alongside them, but it also then means that as the worker would have to take time off to recover, money would be lost as productivity slowed. This source is reliable as it was funded by the International Rice Research Institute to find out the worse aspects of pesticides to see if they could be improved upon in anyway. Also the evaluation of the study is reliable as it is written by two experts in agricultural economics. However one of the worse points is it was written in 1993, 17 years ago, which brings into question whether the information is still relevant. Another part of the study (this one done in 1992) compared the health issues of a group of Quezon farmers, who were not exposed to pesticides and Nueva Ecija farmers, who were exposed to pesticides. Almost half (45.61%) of the farmers from Nueva Ecija showed dermal impairments compared to none in Quezon This means that the pesticides may have been causing some dermal (skin related) illnesses, and in looking back at the previous study, there was some indication that the pesticides may have been causing illnesses such as Eczema. [20]
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Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Similarly comparing the people from Nueva Ecija and Quezon found that in the Respiratory tract, Cardiovascular and Neurological diseases, the people who hadnt been exposed were close to normal but the people who were exposed to pesticides had more, worse cases of the diseases. [20]

Pesticides- Effects on Children

Due to differences in the physical and behavioural state of children, we have found that children are more at risk from pesticides than adults. The fact that childrens digestive and immune systems are still developing provides less natural protection than in adults, therefore making them more susceptible to pesticides. Also as children tend to explore their environment more and put things in their mouths theyre more likely to come into contact with pesticides.
[16][19]

Pesticide residue

One of the main reasons that people turn away from intensively farmed crops and meat and eat organic instead is the fear of pesticide residue. Meaning the fear that leftover pesticide will stay on food and then enter a persons system, possibly causing some sort of illness. However, the actual amount of risk from any pesticide residue is questionable, and there is no proof that food that has been farmed without or with very little (e.g organic) is actually any better for you. In the UK the government sets a Maximum residue level (MRL) to govern the amount of residue left on our foods. Foods that are below this level are acceptable and safe to eat. However some must finish Some people go as far as to link certain pesticides with specific diseases. For example the branch of pesticides known as Organophosphates have been linked with causing cancer, Parkinsons disease, developmental defects and possibly the reproductive system. [21] Some pesticides such as Organophosphates are known as endocrine disrupters, meaning they can disrupt the hormone system, and in some cases pesticides have even been linked to starting

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

The Nitrogen Cycle

It should not necessarily be interpreted to mean that the foods produced are healthier, safer, or "all natural." (15) The organic trend is only one of several that are evident in today's food market. These trends include consumers' increasing demand for convenience foods, a broader range and variety of foods on the local market, and foods that are perceived as natural or minimally processed.

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Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming

Bibliography Reference Full reference number

http://www.sustainweb.org/pdf/myth_real.pdf Published 2001 Author: Catherine Fookes & Kath Palmeny Accessed: 13/07/11 8:19 PM Title: Organic food and farming. Myth and Reality. Organic vs non-organic : the facts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/apr/18/foodanddrink.food published Wednesday 18/04/07 Author: David Adams, Environmental correspondent, Guardian news Title: 'Only intensive farming' will feed Britain Accessed: 18:40- 13/07/11 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/disposable_planet/food/feeding/farming.stm Published: not said Author: BBC news factfile, no specified author Title: Disposable Planet? Factfile: Feeding the World Accessed: 13/07/11 18:34 http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/organic-farming-no-better-for-the-environment436949.html Published: Mon 19/02/07 Author: Cahal Milmo, Independent Title: Organic farming 'no better for the environment' Accessed: 19/ 06/11 14:27 11

Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming 5 http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/10/us-farming-organic-idUSN1036065820070710 Published- Tue 10/07/2007 Author: not specified Title: Organic farming yields as good or better: study Accessed: 19/07/11 14:27 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12245-organic-farming-could-feed-the-world.html Published: 13:46 12/07/11 Author: Catherine Brahic, New Scientist Title: Organic farming could feed the world Accessed: 07/08/11 17:30 CGP GCSE Chemistry, The Revision Guide (Not OCR 21st century) Published: 2006 Authors: Mike Bossart, John Duffy, Snafy Gardner, Lucy Muncaster, Adrian Schmit, Mike Thompson, Jim Wilson Accessed: 07/08/11 17:42 CGP GCSE chemistry, OCR 21st century , The revision Guide, higher level Published: 2007 Authors: Michael Aicken, Mike Bossart, John Duffy, Andy Rankin, Philip Rushworth, Mike Thompson, Paul Warren, Sophie Watkins, Jim Wilson Accessed: 07/08/11 17:46 http://www.soilassociation.org/Whyorganic/Whatisorganic/tabid/206/Default.aspx Published: not specified Author: not specified, Soil Association Accessed: 07/08/11 18:02 http://www.small-farm-permaculture-and-sustainableliving.com/advantages_and_disadvantages_organic_farming.html Published: Not specified Author: Not specified, FantasticFarms Accessed: 10/08/11 14:51 http://organic.lovetoknow.com/Intensive_Livestock_Farming_vs._Organic_Farming Published: Not specified Author: Tamsen Butler, Lovetoknow Accessed: 13/07/11,18:44 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming_by_country Published: Not specified Author :Not specified Accessed: 10/08/11 15:06 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7067100.stm Published: 29/10/07 10:49 Author: not specified Accessed: 10/08/11 19:59

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Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming 14 http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/X4983e.htm Published: 24-28 july 2000 Author; Not specified, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Accessed: 10/08/11 20:51 http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/organic-farming/what-organic_en Published: Not specified Author: Not specified, European Comission Accessed:11/08/11 10:23 http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/Publications/pest-impact-hsstaff.pdf Published: Not specified Author: Not specified, US government Environmental Protection Agency Accessed: 31/08/11 14:45 Title: Organic: Dont Panic article Published: 31/08/11 Author: Not specified, The Economist Accessed: 16:12, 31/08/11 http://www.farmlandinfo.org/documents/38361/Federal_Organic_Food_Production_Act.pdf Published: 1990 Author: Not specified, US Government (EPA) Accessed: 16:30 31/08/11 http://www.who.int/ceh/publications/pestpoisoning.pdf Title: Childhood Pesticide Poisoning Published: May 2004 Author: Dr Lynn, Goldmann, World health organisation Accessed: 12:10 01/09/11 http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xySkptGj1IYC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=pesticides+effects+on+ farmers+health&ots=niCjUpxNGh&sig=aln2GTaJWRNLTfCenOE8So3TOc#v=onepage&q=pesticides%20effects%20on%20farmers%20health&f=false Title: Pesticides, rice productivity, and farmers' health: an economic assessment Authors: Agnes C. Rola and Prabhu L. Pingali, International Rice Research Institute, World Resources Institute Published: 1993 Accessed: 12:32 01/09/11 http://www.panna.org/resources/specific-pesticides/organophosphates Author: Not specified, Pesticide Action Network Published: Not specified Accessed: 16:26, 01/09/11. http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/pesticides_our_food.pdf Author: not specified, friends of the earth Published: Not specified Accessed: 16:32, 01/09/11

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Aisling ONeill; Chemistry Case Study: Organic vs Intensive Farming 23 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/21c/food/farmingmethodsrev1.shtml Title: Farming Methods Author: Not specified, BBC Bitesize Published: Not specified Accessed: 11:32 02/09/11 http://www.soilassociation.org/Whyorganic/Welfareandwildlife/Animalwelfare/tabid/381/Default.aspx Title: Soil association, Animal Welfare Author: Not Specified, Soil Association Published: Not specified Accessed: 16:24 02/09/11

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