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Commentary

Nature 410, 409-410 (22 March 2001) |

Urban myths of organic farming

Anthony Trewavas1

  1. Anthony Trewavas is at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JH, UK.
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Organic agriculture began as an ideology, but can it meet today's needs?

There is a widespread belief that low-yielding organic agricultural systems are more friendly to the environment and more sustainable than high-yielding farming systems. The current aims of organic systems — maintenance of soil fertility, avoidance of pollution, use of crop rotation, animal-welfare concerns and wider environmental aspects — would be hard to quarrel with.