Organic soils are a source of greenhouse gases

I really like the title of this article. Very clever manipulation. I first thought it was some crank story to discredit Organic farming but then I realised it was about the farming of wetlands after they have been drained as in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. But then I realised there was a further issue in question here.
If we keep going down the chemical path we will eventually run out of the chemical fertilisers as the oil runs out. This also will mean no fuel for the machinery. It will result in massive food shortages as the soil (currently devoid of any organic matter and also totally dead, ie no micro-organisms left) has no natural nutrients left to sustain growth of any crops.
Now the traditional way of growing stuff was to keep the soil in tip top condition with regular spreading of organic matter and regular fallow years while the clover grasses and other nitrogen fixing plants planted on it were allowed to accumulate (fix) nitrogen.
Sadly this has been dismissed by the farming community as too costly and labour intensive but what all these farmers fail to account for is the long term effects on food production of our current unsustainable methods.
The biggest single source of greenhouse gas emissions is agriculture. This is a fact proven by all the major climate research institutes world wide. Its not organic agriculture but modern chemical based agriculture with the massive numbers of farm animals and all the associated feed growing units. All this and the chemicals account for the issues with greenhouse gas emissions.
Organic agriculture has been emitting greenhouse gasses for many millenia since before agriculture was invented. This is natural in any environment where organic matter is exposed to the air, and there is air in sandy and loamy soils so it doesn't need to be ploughed to cause these emissions. In waterlogged soils the organic matter becomes peat (and does not decompose fully however it does produce some emissions of greenhouse gasses) which is the material that this research focused on and in particular drained wetland peat.
The planet was able to absorb these emissions naturally whilst the rest of the ecosystem services were in full functioning order. Systems like forests, wetlands, hedgerows, rivers and water meadows. In fact because of the drive for large fields for the tonka toy boys to play in hedgerows and woods have been grubbed out for bigger fields and the ecosystem services have been severely compromised as a result. Now we have a surplus of greenhouse gas emissions and no natural ecosystems to absorb it all.

This research only proves what has been happening for millenia and not something new that can be combatted.
Its time to deal with the real causes and to stop searching for excuses to real change. Chemical agriculture is a dead end to nowhere and GM is in the same avenue. Making excuses or trying to apportion blame on organic matter is like saying its natures fault that we have greenhouse gas emissions and proves that the authors do not fully understand the mechanisms of climate. What we have is more greenhouse gas emissions than the planet can process efficiently and this is down to our behaviour and not a natural process which functioned in balance and harmony until we screwed it up by trying to fix something that wasn't broken.
Only a return to organic agriculture will prepare us for a sustainable future where ecosystems can function fully as they were meant to and the demise of oil can be accommodated fully without too much production loss.
Yes organic agriculture is labour intensive but think how much the chemicals and all the tonka toys cost by comparison and you can quickly see where all the true costs are. Aside from the destruction to the natural world and the ill health of the human race from all the chemical pollution and toxic residues in the food chain.

The title of this article is misleading and irresponsible (or devious and clever). As a synopsis of a scientific study, it is badly written. It generalilses and does not refer once to data generated from the actual study. I percieve this article as devisive and makes me think that there are people out there who are working against the organic movement by trying to convince people that organic farming methods create greenhouse gases to deflect attention away from the use of chemical fertilisers in the soil.
Also, Is the title of this article the the same on the report written by the author of the scientific study? I would guess not and you should not be making up these titles as they will surley have the effect you are seeking which is to deface organic farming without any real evidence to back it up.

Hi i agree with the second comment, oil non organic fert,chems and GM are what we have to learn to move away from and then manage our soils sustainably,caring for their structure first and ecology also with economics second otherwise we will be the generation blamed for ireversible damage and slow to recover from soil conditions this is not an attack on organic farming. local food WILL play its part!!!!

Glenn Buckingham

The title and contents are misleading and unclear. As one of the comments indicated, it is better to post information that reflects the actual title and abstract of the scientific study.