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

Organic versus Conventional Cropping Sustainability: A Comparative System Analysis

Fess T.L. & Benedito V.A.

2018

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Summary

This review paper, published in the MDPI journal Sustainability, provides a comparative systems-level analysis of organic and conventional cropping approaches across key sustainability criteria. Drawing on published literature, it likely evaluates trade-offs between productivity, soil quality, environmental outcomes, and economic performance. The paper contributes a structured framework for assessing the relative sustainability credentials of each system rather than reporting original experimental data.

UK applicability

Although the review is global in scope, its findings are broadly applicable to UK arable and mixed farming contexts, particularly given ongoing UK policy interest in sustainable farming incentives under post-Brexit agricultural support schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Key measures

Soil health indicators; yield comparisons; environmental impact metrics; resource use efficiency; biodiversity indicators; economic viability proxies

Outcomes reported

The study compared organic and conventional cropping systems across multiple sustainability dimensions, likely including soil health, environmental impact, yield, and resource efficiency. It assessed the relative merits and trade-offs of each system to evaluate long-term agronomic and ecological sustainability.

Theme
Farming systems, soils & land use
Subject
Organic & conventional farming systems
Study type
Narrative Review
Study design
Narrative review
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
Global
System type
Arable cropping (mixed systems review)
Catalogue ID
XL1100

Topic tags

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