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Organic fertilizers can significantly reduce global greenhouse
gas emissions if used properly, according to a new scientific
report.
However, unless the organic farming community works to create
goals for climate protection, any gains could be overwhelmed
by international shipments of food products.
The report, entitled 'The potential role of compost in
reducing greenhouse gases' - was developed by Enzo Favoino
and Dominic Hogg and was published in the February 2008 issue
of the journal Waste Management & Research.
In the article, the authors find that soils treated with
organic compost materials can absorb and sequester carbon
better than soils that are farmed with conventional fertilizers,
which serve to deplete and release carbon from the soil. Increasing
the amount of organic carbon in the soil of Italian farms
by 0.15 percent would actually reduce the same amount of carbon
dioxide emissions from the air each year by fossil fuels in
that country.
However, organics are not a silver bullet for trimming agriculture's
carbon footprint. At the annual 'Nature and More Dinner'
in Nuremberg, Germany, experts on agriculture and the
environment gathered to discuss how the booming growth in
organic farming could affect the environment.
Typical of the types of questions that organic farming groups
must address - if they are to prevent serious global warming
- includes concerns about shipping an organic apple from Argentina
or an organic avocado from Chile - do these products, even
though they're organically grown, do more harm than buying
a conventional product from closer to home?
These issues have been addressed repeatedly in recent months.
Late last year, Dole announced that it was making its
pineapple and banana supply chains carbon neutral and separate
reports from Greenpeace and the British National
Farming Union found that agriculture can be a climate-neutral
industry.
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