1. By Josh Sonnabend

2.  Organic Farming: USDA Consumer Brochure-Food that is produced without using conventional pesticides, fertilizers, or bioengineering $2.6 billion to $26.7 billion increase in sales since 1997 This is unlikely to continue in the long term due to a variety of factors including: Economics Inconsistency in health benefit data The major growth in the world population

3.  Organic production yields 25% less on average ◦ Producers must receive a high premium on products  Generally higher premiums around population centers

4.  Although it is widely believed that organic food is healthier/safer, data is not supportive of this claim ◦ Indian Journal of Medical Research: “What is clear from our analysis, however, is that there is currently no evidence of major differences in nutritional content between production regimens and from a public health perspective, the differences that we did identify are not important in the context of a normal healthy diet”

5.  Currently, the world population sits just under 7 billion ◦ Expected to reach 9 billion by 2050  2 billion person increase needs to be fed on a virtually fixed amount of land

6.  The world trend is an increase in the amount of meat in our diets ◦ Requires more grain to feed livestock  Cattle feed conversion ratio ◦ 6:1calories  Hog feed conversion ratio ◦ 3.4-3.6:1calories

7.  Organic agriculture, while possibly having its place as a niche market, will not become the major practice in the United States due to: Reduced yields leading to a less competitive economic ability for producers The inability to find data supporting organic food’s perceived health benefits The rapidly growing world population The increase in meat consumption per capita worldwide

8.  Reubold, Todd. "http://www1.umn.edu/news/news- releases/2012/UR_CONTENT_383487.html.". University of Minnesota, 26 Apr 2012. Web. 8 Apr 2013.  Dena M. Bravata, et al. "Are Organic Foods Safer Or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives?." Annals Of Internal Medicine 157.5 (2012): 348-366. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.  Ricardo Uauy, et al. "Nutritional composition & health benefits of organic foods -- using systematic reviews to question the available evidence." Indian Journal of Medical Research Apr. 2010: 478+. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.  Goodman, Ryan. "http://agricultureproud.com/2012/02/06/cattlemens-college-cattle- feed-efficiency/.". Agriculture Proud, 6 Feb 2012. Web. 8 Apr 2013.  Losinger, William. United States. Department of Agriculture.Feed-conversion ratio of finisher pigs in the USA. Fort Collins, CO:, 1998. Print.