New research adds to the increasingly nuanced picture of organic farming and how well it can meet both our food and ecological goals. The new study, published in Science, identifies one unintended consequence of organic agriculture: it seems to lead to the increased use of insecticides on neighboring fields.

However, this uptick in chemical use can be entirely offset by grouping organic fields together at the landscape level, the researchers reveal.

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In fact, their analysis showed that a 10% increase in surrounding organic fields corresponded with a 0.3% increase in the application of pesticides. This effect was most obvious in conventional fields that were closest to the organic ones, within a 0.5 kilometer radius. The effect dimmed the further away the conventional fields were from the organic ones.

But in organic fields surrounded by more organic plots, there was the reverse effect. Where there was a 10% increase in the acreage of organic fields, there was a parallel 3% decrease in the amount of pesticides applied on nearby organic lands. Similarly, here the effect was greatest at close range, between zero and 0.5 kilometers.

The researchers’ dataset wasn’t able to explain the reasons for these dynamics—why it is that conventional lands use more insecticide in the presence of organic fields, and why rates of use conversely drop on other organic fields. As the scientists note, there could be a range of overlapping factors at play: what crops the farmers are producing, the different management strategies they use to protect yields, and how insects move between farms. Unpicking these was beyond the study’s scope.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here