‘Organic abundance’ report: fatally flawed

Abstract

Fatal flaws in the recent report from Badgley et al. claiming that organic agriculture ‘could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base’. Among the serious problems identified: over 100 non-organic yield studies were claimed as organic; organic yields were misreported; false comparisons were made to unrepresentative low non-organic yields; high organic yields were counted 2, 3, even 5 times by citing different papers that referenced the same data; favorable and unverifiable ‘studies’ from biased sources were given equal weight to rigorous university studies. This report is being submitted to the Editor of the journal, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, for publication and response. It is only being released in the interest of public debate and discussion during the much-touted ‘organic fortnight’.