March 2020 - 32

ORGANIC
Farm edge in biodiversity, profits site-linked
By Sara Zaske
Washington State University
For organic farms, size matters: not
so much the size of the farm itself,
but the size of the neighboring fields.
A large-scale analysis published
in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences on Jan. 27 found
that organic agriculture sites had
34% more biodiversity and 50% more
profits than conventional agriculture
sites, even though the organic sites
had 18% lower crop yields.
Yet the study, produced by a
Washington State University (WSU)
student " journal club, " also found that
as the size of the fields surrounding
the organic farms increased, those
values shifted: the organic farms'
advantage in biodiversity increased,
but they lost some of their edge
in profitability in comparison to
conventional farms in similar areas.
" A landscape with large field sizes
might be an indicator of agricultural
intensification in general, with many
fields with only one crop and heavier
pesticide and herbicide use, " said
Olivia Smith, a recent WSU Ph.D.
graduate and the lead author on the
study. " That's a place where there's
not a lot of natural habitat animals
can use. An organic farm on that
kind of landscape becomes a refuge
for species. "
The study also
revealed that
price premiums
for organic food
played a big role
in profitability,
according
to Associate
Professor Dave
Crowder, an
author on the paper and the journal
club's faculty advisor.
" The areas that get the greatest
price premium for organic food
are those that have small field
In organic agriculture, the size of one's neighbors matters. Photo:Olivia Smith/WSU
sizes, which are often located in
more urban areas that are more
connected to large consumer bases, "
said Crowder. " For example, all else
being equal, an organic farmer who
is in the middle of Iowa may not do
nearly as well as an organic farmer
near Seattle where there are more
consumers willing to pay higher
prices for organic food. "
The WSU journal club is a group of
DAVE CROWDER
graduate students who meet to discuss
research papers and look for gaps
in the scientific literature. Finding
that other analyses had overlooked
the impacts of landscape context
on organic yield and profitability
margins, the students pooled their
efforts to conduct a large metaanalysis,
synthesizing the data
from 148 studies around the world
spanning 60 different types of crops.
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The resulting paper is the first of
its kind to take landscape context
into account while looking at the
three factors of biodiversity, crop
yields and profitability. The WSU
study suggests that these three
factors are separate: that what makes
one increase or decrease has less
to do with the others than with the
landscape context, farming practices
or socioeconomic issues.
While this was a large-scale
analysis, the authors noted
limitations in available data as most
studies were focused on developed
countries, and the only available
studies on profitability with location
information were in the U.S. Smith
said more research is needed from
less developed parts of the world,
particularly in the tropics.
The WSU journal club is two years
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Olivia Smith, a recent Washington State
University Ph.D. graduate and the lead
author on the study. Photo: Amanda
Edworthy/WSU
old and has published a paper each year.
This study received support from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture
National Institute of Food and
Agriculture Hatch project. VGN
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March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2020
