Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Organic farming and deforestation

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16098 (2016) Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

To the Editor — We agree with Reganold and Wachter1 that organic farming offers lessons for improving agricultural sustainability. However, current organic certification systems do little to prevent deforestation and other forms of habitat conversion. For example, the USDA organic standard, widely applied around the world, failed to prevent deforestation for organic sugar in Paraguay2. The certification criteria recommended by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) specify that organic farms should not be established on “land that has been obtained by clearing of High Conservation Value Areas in the preceding 5 years”3, but fail to elaborate how these areas should be identified, by whom, and how compliance is audited. Rigorous assessment of land-use change cannot be left to individual, poorly resourced auditors4. The organic movement must learn from other sustainability standards, such as the Roundtable on Responsible Soy and the Rainforest Alliance, which provide more rigorous protection for forests and other habitats. This will become increasingly pertinent as interest in finding ways to end habitat loss intensifies, and as companies commit to deforestation-free supply chains.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Reganold, J. P. & Wachter, J. M. Nature Plants 2, 15221 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rogers, H. Mother Jones 35, 58–79 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  3. The IFOAM Norms for Organic Production and Processing (IFOAM, 2014); http://bit.ly/21m1F0F

  4. Jurjonas, M., Crossman, K., Solomon, J. & Baez, W. L. World Dev. 78, 13–21 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Conservation Science Group, University of Cambridge, David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, CB2 3QZ, UK

    Cath Tayleur

  2. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, Oregon, USA

    Ben Phalan

Authors
  1. Cath Tayleur
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ben Phalan
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cath Tayleur or Ben Phalan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tayleur, C., Phalan, B. Organic farming and deforestation. Nature Plants 2, 16098 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.98

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.98

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene