Despite a slight decline between 2009 and 2010, the global land area farmed organically has expanded more than threefold to 37 million hectares worldwide since 1999.

Although the approach was savaged by evangelical neoliberal environmentalist Mark Lynas in his address to the Oxford Farming Conference at the beginning of the month, Worldwatch researchers Catherine Ward and Laura Reynolds have produced a report which shows organic agriculture is growing around the world. The report is available from the Worldwatch website.

Regions with the largest certified organic agricultural land in 2010 were Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations (12.1 million hectares); Europe (10 million hectares); and Latin America (8.4 million hectares).

By 2010, 84 countries had implemented organic regulations, according to the researchers, who said that, although definitions of what constitutes 'organic' vary, all see it as a field of agriculture with a focus on environmental protection. According to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, organic agriculture is a production system that relies on ecological processes, such as waste recycling, rather than the use of synthetic inputs.

Laura Reynolds said that, contrary to common misconceptions, the approach has some benefits in relation to conventional agriculture. She explained, "Although organic agriculture often produces lower yields on land that has recently been farmed conventionally, it can outperform conventional practices, especially in times of drought, when the land has been farmed organically for a longer time."

Creating resilient systems

Research conducted in Switzerland over 20 years on wheat and potatoes and released in 2002 showed that, although yields were 20 per cent lower than conventionally grown crops, energy inputs were reduced by up to 53 per cent under organic management and pesticide use was reduced by 97 per cent. Researchers also found the organic systems were more biodiverse and fertile; they concluded that "Enhanced soil fertility and higher biodiversity found in organic plots may render these systems less dependent on external inputs."

In line with Swiss researcher Paul Maeder's conclusions, Worldwatch author Reynolds added, "Conventional agricultural practices often degrade the environment over both the long and short term through soil erosion, excessive water extraction, and biodiversity loss," and suggested organic farming can "simultaneously reduce vulnerability to climate change and enhance biodiversity," meaning the approach offers a real alternative where the hungry live, particularly as it requires fewer inputs.

Reynolds added that common organic practices, including rotating crops, applying mulch to empty fields, and maintaining perennial shrubs and trees on farms help stabilise soils and improve water retention, thus reducing vulnerability to harsh weather patterns. However, she did acknowledge that "practices associated with organic farming are… labour intensive."

The researchers also said that, on average, organic farms have 30 percent higher biodiversity, including birds, insects, and plants, than conventional farms do.

Although the United States was initially slow to adopt organic farming methods, the sector is now one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, having expanded by 9.5 percent in 2011 to reach $31.5 billion in sales (£20 billion). In contrast to the prevailing trend in Europe, the UK's organic sector is shrinking. In 2011, the last year for which figures are available, UK production shrank by 2.8percent against an overall growth of 9 percent in the EU as a whole.

Commenting on the fate of the organic sector in the UK, Riverford Organics founder Guy Watson told those present at the Oxford Real Farming conference that the contraction seen since 2008 was compounded by powerful supermarkets, which account for over 90 percent of groceries sales in the country. He said, "When the recession hit [supermarkets] took lots of organic food off the shelf and replaced it with bargain food, because that's what they thought consumers wanted." He said this action meant the decline of organic in the UK was therefore "self-fulfilling, and sales dropped."

The Worldwatch researchers predicted that sustainable food production will become increasingly important in developing countries, as the majority of population growth is concentrated in the world's poorest countries and said organic has a part to play in this. They added that, of the 1.6 million global certified organic farmers worldwide, 80 percent live in the developing world.