The Pros and Cons of Organic Farming | Ecology and Environment | Biology | FuseSchool

In this video ( we looked at the key principles of organic farming - the use of more natural alternatives instead of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides or feed additives for livestock. This all sounds great, but there is more to the story. Organic farming isn’t all good. The yields are lower because more produce is damaged by pests, and carefully selected chemical pesticides cannot be used. With an ever-growing world population, we have limited land to feed everyone from. So should we therefore just focus on maximising yields? Or to get the same yields, more land would need to be farmed. Where would this surplus land come from - cutting down our remaining forests and rainforests? This would be far worse for the environment both in terms of climate change and biodiversity. A study in the UK found that a litre of organic milk requires 80% more land than conventional milk to produce. That’s a lot more land, and makes you wonder whether organic foods