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What do they say about the amount of labour required to produce those yields on an organic basis?
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Jul 15th, 2007 at 06:53:06 AM EST
See page five of the first PDF I mentionned above:


19. [...] Higher labour input decreases expenses on purchased inputs by some 40% but labour costs increase by 10 to 15 precent. The main benefit of organic systems is energy efficiency [...]

Yield increase is seen in subsistence agriculture, decrease elsewhere but on average estimate is "132% more than current food production levels"

by Laurent GUERBY on Sun Jul 15th, 2007 at 07:54:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well the study De refers to seems to indicate that the yield in non-developing world is only a little less than conventional. A 15% increase in labour isn't too bad, and there's the issue of smarter, non-monoculture agriculture for the fruit trees and perennials, though I suspect that'll increase the labour requirements more.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sun Jul 15th, 2007 at 12:47:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, that will keep more people employed, though given the decreasing fraction of people employed in agriculture, increasing that by 15% is probably not going to make the unemployment rate look much better.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 02:22:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
That's the real question, isn't it?

This from an actual farmer in the UK:
While touring a (small) organic farm the question came up what they did about certain rather nasty weeds. Once these  get into the ground they are very hard to get rid of - for a family operation it's just not possible to put in the amount of work required.
The answer is that you use a lot of pesticides, then go organic the next year. Problem solved.

I'm sure "organic" appeals to us armchair intellectuals with our nice desk jobs, but someone will have to do the work.

by Number 6 on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 04:04:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm of the view that we're going to have dedicate more labour and a greater proportion of our incomes to food in the future, which isn't a bad thing and makes organic farming more practical.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 05:00:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Sounds about right.

I wonder weather this will make smaller farms finally viable, or be the thing that kills them off? (With EU rules my money is on the latter.)

by Number 6 on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 06:08:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
What kinds of EU rules are we talking about?

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 06:12:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm just regurgitating the standard anti-CAP stuff.

(Hey, Andy CAP ... that would be a neat cartoon character.  Uh-oh, here comes Maggie with the rolling pin!)

by Number 6 on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 06:37:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, in so far as the CAP subsidises large farms over small farms, it will tend to encourage "organic agribusiness".

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jul 16th, 2007 at 06:41:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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