the labor of the land

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Organic farming creates more jobs, U.K. study finds

 

Organic agriculture has traditionally been linked to health and environmental

benefits. Now it can add job creation to its portfolio: A study of nearly 1,200

farms in the United Kingdom and Ireland found that organic farming creates on

average 32 percent more jobs than conventional agriculture. The U.K.'s

agricultural workforce has declined 79 percent since 1952. But the Soil

Association, Britain's organic certification body, notes that if the nation were

to convert all of its farms to organic, it would create an additional 93,000

farm jobs. Currently only 4 percent of Brit farming is organic. Some argue that

full-scale organic conversion wouldn't be a benefit: " The most expensive cost

for farmers is labor and that is why organic food as a rule of thumb costs half

as much again, " says one economist. Nevertheless, applications to the Soil

Association have more than doubled in the past year, so somebody in the U.K.

must view employing members of their community as more than merely a cost.

 

 

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