1047: Taxing organic food saves water. Terry Anderson, PERC, @HooverInst.
Photo: Organic farming, in its long history, in a region that protects its water. http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/contact http://JohnBatchelorShow.com/schedules Parler & Twitter: @BatchelorShow #ClassicTerryAnderson: Taxing organic food saves water. Terry Anderson, PERC, @HooverInst. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418509/how-taxing-organic-products-could-solve-californias-water-shortage-terry-l-anderson How will taxing organic products help to conserve water? The answer is that organic agriculture uses more of critical inputs — labor, land, and water — than conventional agriculture. Taxation would reduce the demand for water-wasting organic products relative to non-organic alternatives, and thereby reduce some of the pressure on California’s dwindling water supplies. Consider the inefficiency of organic agriculture. A 30-year side-by-side trial comparing yields per acre of organic versus conventional practices by the Rodale Institute (whose motto is, “organic pioneers since 1947”) contends that organic and conventional plots produce equal yields. But at the 20-year point of the Rodale study, Alex Avery, the director of research and education at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Food Issues, used Rodale’s own data to impeach that claim. His analysis concluded that conventional agriculture beat organic handily in “total system yields” (by 30 percent), nitrogen efficiency (by 60 percent), and labor (by 35 percent).