Organic farming uses manure and compost instead of synthetic fertilizer, and new research finds that this can help mitigate climate change. Published in the journal Global Change Biology, a recent study found that using compost is critical to long-term carbon storage in deep layers of the soil. Amending soil with organic inputs like cover crops… Read More ›

  A recent study in Frontiers in Microbiology shows that the microbial diversity on organic fruit may be able to keep disease-causing bacteria at bay. Researchers compared bacterial communities in organic versus conventional apples, and found that while organic and conventional apples have the same amount of bacteria on them, organic apples have more beneficial bacteria that offer… Read More ›

  A study recently published in the Journal of Applied Ecology found that organic agriculture can significantly increase the health of honeybee hives by providing continuous food sources when flowers are scarce in the landscape. Intensive and conventional farming are known to decrease important biodiversity such as pollinators and natural enemies to pests by removing… Read More ›

  A recent study in the journal Scientia Horticulturae found that agroecological organic production outperformed larger-scale and more intensive organic and conventional production systems. As the demand for organic food increases, organic farming is faced with new challenges related with scaling up to provide a greater supply of organic food. This study quantified the environmental… Read More ›

  A recent study in the journal Biological Control surveyed beetle communities in conventional and organic farms, and found that only organic farms fostered the right beetle species that directly suppresses E. coli on farms. This study is important because it shows that supporting more biodiversity can reduce food safety risks on organic farms, which… Read More ›