(2012-10-22) Marsden Farm Crop Rotation Reduced Chemical Use

Mark Bittman on a study by Iowa State University at Marsden Farm.

On 22 acres of it, beginning in 2003, researchers set up three plots: one replicated the typical Midwestern cycle of planting corn one year and then soybeans the next, along with its routine mix of chemicals (Factory Farm). On another, they planted a three-year cycle that included oats; the third plot added a four-year cycle and alfalfa. The longer rotations also integrated the raising of livestock, whose manure was used as fertilizer. The results were stunning: The longer rotations produced better yields of both corn and soy, reduced the need for nitrogen fertilizer and herbicides by up to 88 percent, reduced the amounts of toxins in groundwater 200-fold and didn’t reduce profits by a single cent.

The (USDA) declined to comment when I asked about it... A conspiracy theorist might note that the journals Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences both turned down the study. It was finally published in PLOS One; I first read about it on the Union of Concerned Scientists Web site.

Matt Liebman, inspired in part by a pioneering Iowa farmer named Dick Thompson, wanted to bring integrated pest management back, but augmented with technology’s new tools... Integrated pest management is much more complicated than industrial farming, requiring more day-to-day decisions and local knowledge. “We’ve become very, very used to a system that’s straightforward,” said crop scientist Germán Bollero of the University of Illinois. “Implementing this at a large scale is not going to be easy.”... Diverse, year-round crop rotations are also more resilient to climate stress... Graff noted that farm subsidies (Farm Bill) currently favor intensive soy and corn production, and that industry lobbying groups have actively resisted subsidy reform that rewards other types of crop production.