Organic Farming: Studies of Efficacy?

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

Does anyone know of any good literature on organic agricultural practices and their efficacy. I was shocked that my university database had ZERO, and I have no where else to look.

I found a commentary piece from Nature and a review of a few studies from Reason Magazine, but all of them were promptly dismiss as industry shills.

From what I got from those sources, organic agriculture is supposedly much less efficient, on average around 20%. But they keep asserting that it's not inefficient and better than conventional agriculture. I can't find anything other than the "dismissed" sources really to counter it.

All of the literature I can find just claims how great it is. However, even one of the sources someone gave me admitted it was less productive, but then went on to conclude it was still better and more efficient.

Are there any others available that address it? I am totally confused now.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

Edit: another problem is that they simply dismiss sources they don't want to deal with. For example, I used a piece from the journal Nature. It was well-documented (citations), but they just dismissed it. When I asked them to justify dismissal by demonstrating some error in the reasoning or information of the article, they said "I don't need to prove a negative."

I don't see how that applies. Using their argument, couldn't I just dismiss any of their sources information and refuse to justify it by showing it's in error? I don't get how that works.

[sketerpot]

If this guy refuses to take something from Nature seriously, based purely on an ad hominem attack against one of the most reputable scientific journals in existence, then your time would be better spent hammering him for that. Looking for more sources is probabaly going to be futile, but you've got enough to work with right now.

You could also try looking up the citations from the Nature article. Some of them are probabaly online.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

I think I will look those up. It was in Nature, but apparently, it's an analytical commentary piece by a plant biologist, not a study. It just cites the studies. I wouldn't have a problem discussing the piece. I don't think it's some absolute authority that can't be contradicted. But they wouldn't even discuss the information in it. Perhaps you're right. I've checked out the sources in the library.

This was the article from Nature, printed elsewhere after.

Urban Myths of Organic Agriculture