Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 4 — Narrative / commentaryPeer-reviewed

Sustainability in global agriculture driven by organic farming

Frank Eyhorn, Adrian Müller, John P. Reganold, Emile Frison, H. R. Herren, Louise Luttikholt, Alexander Mueller, Jürn Sanders, Nadia El-Hage Scialabba, Verena Seufert, Pete Smith

Nature Sustainability · 2019

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Summary

This Nature Sustainability paper, authored by leading organic agriculture researchers, presents a synthesis of how organic farming systems can contribute to global agricultural sustainability. The work appears to argue that organic farming, despite yield considerations, offers material benefits for soil health, ecosystem services, and resilience—and that scaling such systems is compatible with feeding a growing population. The paper likely integrates evidence across environmental and socioeconomic domains rather than reporting primary experimental data.

UK applicability

The findings are relevant to UK policy discussions around sustainable intensification and public goods payments under agricultural reform post-Brexit. However, UK-specific yield gaps and labour availability in organic production may moderate the applicability of global-scale conclusions to British conditions.

Key measures

As suggested by the title and authorship: soil organic matter, biodiversity metrics, greenhouse gas emissions, crop yields, farm profitability, and food security indicators across organic and conventional systems

Outcomes reported

The paper examines how organic farming contributes to sustainability across environmental, social and economic dimensions at global scale. It likely synthesises evidence on organic farming's impacts on soil health, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and food security.

Theme
Farming systems, soils & land use
Subject
Regenerative & agroecological farming
Study type
Narrative Review
Study design
Narrative review
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
Global
System type
Organic systems
DOI
10.1038/s41893-019-0266-6
Catalogue ID
BFmor3g7fe-4pm9io

Topic tags

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