TAILIEUCHUNG - The Sustainability of Organic Grain Production on the Canadian Prairies—A Review

Demand for organically produced food products is increasing rapidly in North America, driven by a perception that organic agriculture results in fewer negative environmental impacts and yields greater benefits for human health than conventional systems. Despite the increasing interest in organic grain production on the Canadian Prairies, a number of challenges remain to be addressed to ensure its long-term sustainability. In this review, we summarize Western Canadian research into organic crop production and evaluate its agronomic, environmental, and economic sustainability. . | Sustainability 2010 2 1016-1034 doi su2041016 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 journal sustainability Review The Sustainability of Organic Grain Production on the Canadian Prairies A Review Crystal Snyder and Dean Spaner Department of Agricultural Food Nutritional Science 4-10 Agriculture Forestry Centre University of Alberta Edmonton Alberta T6G 2P5 Canada E-Mail Author to whom correspondence should be addressed E-Mail Tel. 1-780-492-2328 Fax 1-780-492-4265. Received 2 March 2010 in revised form 29 March 2010 Accepted 12 April 2010 Published 14 April 2010 Abstract Demand for organically produced food products is increasing rapidly in North America driven by a perception that organic agriculture results in fewer negative environmental impacts and yields greater benefits for human health than conventional systems. Despite the increasing interest in organic grain production on the Canadian Prairies a number of challenges remain to be addressed to ensure its long-term sustainability. In this review we summarize Western Canadian research into organic crop production and evaluate its agronomic environmental and economic sustainability. Keywords organic agriculture conventional agriculture sustainability Canada grain farming 1. Introduction Organic agriculture is described by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM as a whole system approach based upon a set of processes resulting in a sustainable ecosystem safe food good nutrition animal welfare and social justice 1 . Organic production systems operate according to standards which among other things aim to promote ecosystem health while discouraging the use of many non-organic inputs such as synthetic fertilizers pesticides and certain veterinary drugs. Interest in organic production and organic food products has been increasing Sustainability 2010 2 1017 rapidly in recent years due to a number of factors .

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