Organic and Conventional Agriculture: A Useful Framing?

Shennan, Carol; Krupnik, Timothy J.; Baird, Graeme; Cohen, Hamutahl; Forbush, Kelsey; Lovell, Robin J.; Olimpi, Elissa M.

doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-085750

Cited by 86 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 200 publications

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“…They however did not provide clear definition for the specific management practices that constituted ‘ecological’ practices. This distinction is important because ‘ecological agriculture’ is generally broader than OA, and may make strategic and targeted use of synthetic inputs and may or may not conform to organic standards (Magdoff, 2007; Shennan et al , 2017). With the exception of Van den Putte et al (2010), whose definition of what constitutes reduced and conventional tillage was not fully specified, the criteria used to define different configurations of CA principles in the meta-analyses reviewed in this paper tended to be more specific (Table 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A first step in addressing this issue is to formally recognize that cropping systems may not be as simple in reality as compared to experimental settings. In other words, crop management follows a wide and variable range of practices when implemented by farmers as compared to experimental agronomists (Goulding et al , 2011; Shennan et al , 2017). Rather than relying on perhaps artificial groupings and diametrically opposed comparisons of OA or CA versus conventional management, research could also consider the importance of gradients in crop management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…OA is defined by the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) as a production system that sustains the health of ecosystems and people, and that makes use of ecological processes and cycles to eliminate synthetic inputs (IFOAM, 2015). OA is frequently equated with ‘ecological’, ‘agroecological’, ‘sustainable’ and/or ‘low-external input (LEI)’ agriculture, though each may differ in practice (Magdoff, 2007; Rigby and Caceres, 2001; Shennan et al , 2017). OA is also generally contrasted with ‘conventional agriculture’, although the characteristics of conventional agriculture tend to be counterfactually defined as anything not organic (Giller et al , 2017: 154).…”

Section: Case Study Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does Size Matter? A Critical Review of Meta-Analysis in Agronomy

et al. 2019

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SUMMARYIntended to test broad hypotheses and arrive at unifying conclusions, meta-analysis is the process of extracting, assembling, and analyzing large quantities of data from multiple publications to increase statistical power and uncover explanatory patterns. This paper describes the ways in which meta-analysis has been applied to support claims and counter-claims regarding two topics widely debated in agricultural research, namely organic agriculture (OA) and conservation agriculture (CA). We describe the origins of debate for each topic and assess prominent meta-analyses considering data-selection criteria, research question framing, and the interpretation and extrapolation of meta-analytical results. Meta-analyses of OA and CA are also examined in the context of the political economy of development-oriented agricultural research. Does size matter? We suggest that it does, although somewhat ironically. While meta-analysis aims to pool all relevant studies and generate comprehensive databases from which broad insights can be drawn, our case studies suggest that the organization of many meta-analyses may affect the generalizability and usefulness of research results. The politicized nature of debates over OA and CA also appear to affect the divergent ways in which meta-analytical results may be interpreted and extrapolated in struggles over the legitimacy of both practices. Rather than resolving scientific contestation, these factors appear to contribute to the ongoing debate. Meta-analysis is nonetheless becoming increasingly popular with agricultural researchers attracted by the power for the statistical inference offered by large datasets. This paper consequently offers three suggestions for how scientists and readers of scientific literature can more carefully evaluate meta-analyses. First, the ways in which papers and data are collected should be critically assessed. Second, the justification of research questions, framing of farming systems, and the scales at which research results are extrapolated and discussed should be carefully evaluated. Third, when applied to strongly politicized topics situated in an arena of scientific debate, as is the case with OA and CA, more conservative interpretations of meta-analytical results that recognize the socially and politically embedded nature of agricultural research is are needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Study Descriptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does Size Matter? A Critical Review of Meta-Analysis in Agronomy

et al. 2019

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“…However, there is evident disagreement within the scientific community on the potential of this practice to guarantee high levels of food security. From one perspective, a portion of the literature reports a considerable reduction in yields observed in organic agricultural systems [60][61][62][63][64]; however, other literature maintains, based on trials, that the achieved yields are comparable to those of conventional systems [65][66][67][68]. This divergence in output is explained by Seufert [69], who reviewed the performance of Organic Agriculture in the literature and showed that it could have, in some cases, higher yields compared to conventional agriculture; however, in other cases, the yields are significantly lower or insignificantly lower (statistically).…”

Section: Integrated Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

Chami¹,

Daccache

Moujabber

2020

Sustainability

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In the last few decades, a great deal has been written on the use of sustainable agriculture to improve the resilience of ecosystem services to climate change. However, no tangible and systematic evidence exists on how this agriculture would participate in alleviating impacts on vulnerable rural communities. This paper provides a narrative systematic review (SR) integrated with a bibliometric analysis and a concept network analysis to determine how, in this changing climate, sustainable agriculture can increase the resilience of agrosystems. Our search ranged from the date of the first relevant article until the end of 2018. The results generated demonstrated the following: (a) Only single practices and methods have been studied to assess the impacts on single ecosystem services; (b) Soil quality and health are considered a key indicator of sustainable agriculture; (c) Although the assessed practices and methods were shown to improve the biodiversity of agrosystems, which makes them more resilient to extreme climate events, we are still far from developing interdisciplinary and multidimensional agriculture that integrates all management aspects and generates a full range of ecosystem services. In conclusion, this study addressed the following recommendations for the scientific community and policymakers to orient future research strategies and efforts: (a) The integration of all agrosystem services into sustainable management using an ecosystem-based approach on a life-cycle basis using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method; (b) Improving the scientific understanding of traditional knowledge to facilitate greater synergy and further integration; (c) The unification of assessment methods and indicators for the quantification of impacts; (d) The creation of a platform to share, monitor, screen, and approve assessments and evaluations of sustainable agriculture by region.

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“…However, there is an evident disagreement within the scientific community on the potential of this practice to guarantee high levels of food security. From one side, a part of the literature studied reports a considerable reduction in yields observed in organic agricultural systems [56][57][58][59][60]; and from another side, other literature retains, based on trials, that achieved yields could comparable to the conventional systems [61][62][63][64]. This divergence in output could be explained by Seufert [65] who reviewed the performance of Organic Agriculture in the literature and have shown that it could have in some cases higher yields compared to conventional agriculture, while in other cases yields are lower significantly lower or insignificantly lower (statistically).…”

Section: Integrated Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Could Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

Chami¹,

Daccache²,

Moujabber³

2020

Preprint

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In the last few decades, a lot has been written on the use of sustainable agriculture to improve ecosystem services for resilience to climate change. However, no tangible and systematic evidence exists on how this would participate in alleviating impacts on vulnerable rural communities. This paper provides a narrative systematic review (SR) integrated with a bibliometric analysis and a concept network analysis to understand how, in a changing climate, sustainable agriculture builds the resilience of agro-systems. The search was set from the date of the first relevant article until the end of 2018. Results generated have demonstrated that: a. Only single practices and methods have been studied to assess impacts on single ecosystem services. b. Soil quality and health are considered a key indicator of sustainable agriculture. c. Albeit the assessed practices and methods have shown to improve the biodiversity of agro-systems, which makes them more resilient to extreme climate events, we are still far from reaching interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional agriculture which integrates all management aspects and generates a full range of ecosystem services. In conclusion, the study addressed the following recommendations for the scientific community and for decision-makers to orient future research strategies and efforts: a. Integration of all agro-systems services into sustainable management using an ecosystem-based approach on a life-cycle basis using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method; b. Improving the scientific understanding of traditional knowledge for higher synergies and for further integration; c. Unification of assessment methods and indicators for the quantification of impacts; d. Creation of a platform to share, monitor, screen, and approve assessments and evaluations of sustainable agriculture by region.

show abstract

Organic and Conventional Agriculture: A Useful Framing?

Cited by 86 publications

References 200 publications

Does Size Matter? A Critical Review of Meta-Analysis in Agronomy

Does Size Matter? A Critical Review of Meta-Analysis in Agronomy

How Can Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

How Could Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

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