Jane Powerson organic farming.
By the end of 2006, around 1 per cent of agricultural land in Ireland was being managed organically: that's 37,466 hectares being worked by 1,270 farmers. The present Programme for Government aims to convert at least 5 per cent of all farm acreage to organic practices by 2012. Yet, currently, the amount of farmland that is being converted to organic is increasing by only 15 per cent each year. We need to double our conversion speed to reach the 5 per cent target on time.
The organic market is one of the fastest growing sectors in this country. In 2003, Irish people spent €38 million on ecologically-raised products; by 2006 the figure had increased to €66 million per year.
There are many reasons why consumers choose organic. For some, the difference in quality is the salient factor: organically-raised food retains fewer chemical residues, it can taste better, and - according to some studies - it contains more nutrients than conventionally farmed products. Its smaller impact on the environment is key for some consumers, with less pollution from pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers. Organic practices offer a more sustainable way of raising our food, by actively building soil (rather than depleting it), by improving water retention, and by helping to prevent erosion.
There is another pressing reason why we might want to hurry up and put more acreage under ecological cultivation: soil that is farmed organically can absorb significant amounts of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. According to the findings of an ongoing 27-year comparison study of organic and conventional farming techniques, soil that is managed using "green" methods such as no-till and winter cover-crops absorbs 30 per cent more carbon than conventionally-farmed land. The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, which has carried out the research, has shown that the effect is immediate, and is repeated year after year.
Here's how it works: plants take in carbon dioxide as they grow, the carbon turns into plant matter, and some of it is eventually lodged into the soil. The oxygen is released back into the air. Ploughing introduces large amounts of oxygen into the soil again; there it reacts with the carbon to form carbon dioxide, which is then emitted back into the atmosphere. No-till cultivation - where seeds are introduced through slits, or punched into the ground - barely disturbs the soil, and therefore produces little carbon dioxide. Another benefit here is that less ploughing means that farm machinery is used less frequently, and emissions are decreased (as well as fossil fuel use).
The additional use of winter cover-crops means that there is always plant material growing, which is continually photosynthesising, and steadily removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
So, on the eve of National Organic Week (October 22-28), there can't be a better time to bring more of our land under green cultivation, and to lessen our black carbon footprint.