Prism Webcast News

Prism News Bulletin - Organics can Feed the World & NZ National Organics Conference

Sunday, July 29, 2007
Posted in Global Warming Organics PRISM NEWS PODCASTS Sustainability | Tagged Global Warming, Organics, PRISM NEWS PODCASTS, Sustainability

 

 Organics Bulletin July 2007 [42:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Organics can feed the world [13:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Interview with Retired Editor of Organic NZ [17:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 NZ National Organics Conference [11:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

THIS PRISM WEBCAST NEWS BULLETIN COVERS:

• How organics can feed the world and the research that has been done to back this claim up.
• An interview with the recently retired editor of ORGANIC NZ Allan Baddock on his time at the magazine and the state of organics in NZ at the moment.
• Lastly an interview with Holger Kahl on the upcoming national organics conference entitled “Our Organic Future - Cottage Or Corporate?”

1. Organics Can Feed the World

A group of U.S. researchers has recently claimed that organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as traditional subsistence farming in developing countries, and holds its own against conventional agricultural methods in developed countries.

They said their findings contradict the argument that organic farming - which excludes the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides - is not as efficient as conventional techniques.

They came to these conclusions by analyzing 293 different published studies on yields from organic farming. Their hope is that they can finally put a nail in the coffin of the idea that you can’t produce enough food through organic agriculture to feed the world.

I spoke to Catherine Badgley of the University of Michigan about the research and how they came to their conclusions.

Further information at:

http://prismwebcastnews.com/pwn/?p=984

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2. Organic NZ Magazine Editor Allan Baddock

Allan Baddock recently moved on from being the editor of the Soil & Health Associations magazine “Organic NZ”. I decided to ask him about his time as the editor of the leading organics magazine in New Zealand and what he believes are the negative and positive developments that has happened in that time with organics and where he thinks it is going in the future.

Magazine at:

http://www.organicnz.org/

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3. National Organics Conference with Holger Kahl

Coming up on the weekend of the 17^th to 19^th of August the New Zealand organic sector and its constituent organisations are meeting all together for the first time for a national organics conference at Lincoln University.

During the weekend there will be keynote presentations by overseas experts, plenary sessions, workshops and field trips to organic farms as well.

But there is also a very serious side to the conference which is highlighted in its title “Our Organic Future - Cottage or Corporate?” While organics is starting to boom around the world one of the pressures this places on organics is on the topic of where organics is going and this subject was touched on in the interview with Allan Baddock.

I spoke to Holger Kahl the southern coordinator for the organic advisory programme who works for OANZ about the conference and the exciting things that will be happening there as well as what is happening with the organic advisory service and its successes in the South Island.

Further information at:

http://oanz.org.nz/index.php

http://events.lincoln.ac.nz/organics/