OAC prof's study counters suggestions that modern crops perform poorly under organic management
BY ROBERT FIELDHOUSE SPARK PROGRAM
Modern oat and barley varieties outyield heritage or historical varieties under both conventional and organic management practices, says Prof. Duane Falk of the Department of Plant Agriculture.
Falk compared the performance of oat and barley varieties under conventional and organic management practices at the Elora Research Station and at the Guelph Organic Test Site. His results are consistent and decisive: modern varieties of both crops do better than heritage varieties under both management types.
Proponents of organic farming have suggested that modern crops depend on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to such an extent that they'd perform poorly under organic management. But Falk's results tell a different tale.
“Modern varieties aren't dependent on the crutches of conventional management,” he says. “They also do very well under organic management.”
Conventional management involves chemical fertilizers and pesticides, categorized as the industrial way to farm, involving mechanization and monocultures. Organic agriculture relies on biological cycles and biological diversity, minimizing the use of manufactured pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.
This is Falk's third year of research comparing organic and conventional management on a range of varieties. The modern plant varieties he's using were developed through conventional research-driven plant-breeding practices, which are credited with increased yields, disease resistance and other improvements. None of the plants in his research are genetically modified with technologies other than conventional cross-breeding.
He notes that heritage varieties were developed at a time when chemical pesticides were not available and fertilizer was based on animal manures and green manure crops.
Falk has found that modern varieties are more disease-resistant and stress-tolerant than their heritage counterparts. They also have a higher yield potential, even under typical organic growing conditions such as higher weed pressure and lower nutrient conditions.
In addition, he found that grain quality measures such as protein content were better with organic management. Falk attributes this to the negative relationship between yield and protein content. Higher yields normally mean lower protein content because it takes more energy to build proteins than starch in the grain.
Certain essential minerals such as copper and zinc were also higher in organically grown crops, but Falk believes the research site's history and soil profile may play roles in these results, and it will take more research to sort out the details and reach final conclusions.
Falk says that barley and oats, whether heritage or modern varieties, are good choices for organic producers because they self-pollinate, maintaining the crop's genetic character. The same can't be said for corn because cross-pollination can unintentionally introduce genetically modified characteristics to organic crops.
This research is sponsored by the OntarBio Organic Farmers' Co-operative and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
