Historic Study on Effects of Fertilizers Has Surprising Results

32-Year Field Study on Effects of Organic & Inorganic Fertilizers Has  Surprising Results

I published this study over a decade ago because it is still highly significant even now There have been many studies on organic food from a variety of perspectives since then, but this is one of the best! I recently updated the articles to include some pertinent facts about GMO crops, which were not a factor at the time of this study.

A Note About GMO Crops

This fertilizer study was done before the advent of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms). Today, non-GMO and organic crops are even more important than ever! The difference between organic crops and GMO’s is far, far greater than the difference between non-GMO and organic crops — especially when it comes to fertilizers, the original point of this study.

You see, GMO crops are genetically engineered specifically to survive many times the application of chemicals like Monsanto Roundup (glyphosate) and 2,4-D. Normal plants would just die. Making GMO crops more resistant to toxic chemicals that would kill organic crops really only does one thing, regardless of the company hype — it sells more pesticides and herbicides. Some of Monsanto’s most profitable chemicals were originally chemical weapons in World War II and are so profitable that they STILL are selling them, but not to the military — to our farmers.

2,4-D was originally used as part of the infamous, Vietnam era chemical weapon, a defoliant called Agent Orange. 2,4-D has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, lowered sperm counts, liver disease, Parkinson’s disease and many other adverse effects, and is one of the largest sources of dioxins in our environment. Dioxins are highly toxic and build up in your body and the environment over time. Also, 2,4-D sticks around in the environment. It can actually drift through the air from where it is sprayed to a nearby organic farm — or be tracked inside your house by pets or children. In fact, the EPA has already detected 2,4-D in our water, including drinking water. It can also poison small animals that ingest it after eating grass contaminated with 2,4-D.

Destroying Our Entire Food Delivery System

This practice is now actually destroying the genetic diversity of our crops. It is also destroying the soil, which is now no longer truly alive (with living bacterial organisms that have a lot to do with a plant’s nutritional uptake. This practice also creates new super weeds that cannot be killed easily, resulting in even more Roundup and glyphosate being sprayed by the poor, hapless farmers. This has gotten so out of hand that it can actually be more profitable today to be an organic farmer than to grow GMO crops at all — which were supposed to save the farmer with higher yields and cheaper farming methods. But that’s not at all how things turned out!

What actually is happening today is that GMO’s are destroying both our health and, ultimately, our entire food-delivery system — in the name of profit for the companies that engineer GMO’s. They pull every trick in the book to fool you and the rest of the world into believing short-term, heavily biased studies and outright lies.

Organic and non-GMO food are now the last defenses we have against this insanity. Please make a commitment to eat only fresh, raw, organic or non-GMO whole foods. You’ll soon discover that it’s both cheaper and healthier to eat when you consider all the real costs and the health consequences of a toxic GMO diet.

32-Year Field Study on Effects of Organic & Inorganic Fertilizers

In 1958, Bo Pettersson began an agricultural experiment that lasted for 32 years. The focus was primarily on aspects of crop quality, and the fertilizer application rates for the various treatments were adjusted to bring about comparable yields. Interestingly, though one of the goals was to get similar yields from both organic and conventional farming, there were some surprising results!

• Crop yield increases were significantly higher with the organic treatments.
• Though crude protein content of potatoes and wheat was lower in the organic treatments protein quality was higher.
• Resistance to decomposition and store quality for potatoes were higher in organic treatments.
• Wheat starch quality seemed to be higher.
• The organic treatments resulted in a higher soil fertility and in crops with higher quality protein, a higher starch content and greater ability to tolerate stressful conditions and long-term storage vs. the inorganic treatments.
• Crops produced in organic treatments showed a structure that has a higher “organizational level.

Long-Term Field Experiment in Sweden: Effects of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Soil Fertility and Crop Quality

In 1958, Bo D. Pettersson in the Nordic research Circle for Biodynamic Farming in Järna, Sweden, began an agricultural field experiment that lasted until 1990, i.e. 32 years. The field experiment included eight different fertilizer treatments, each with a four-year crop rotation without repetitions: summer wheat, lover/grass mix, potatoes, beets. The focus was primarily on aspects of crop quality, and the fertilizer application rates for the various treatments were adjusted to bring about comparable yields. Two “daughter experiments” emerged from the K-experiment and were run in parallel with the mother project during 1971-1976 in Uppsala and 1971-1979 in Järna.

In these experiments a comparison was made between two systems, biodynamic farming and conventional farming, in which both fertilizer regimes and crop rotations were studied. One of the main objectives in the K-experiment, i.e. to obtain nearly the same yield over the experimental period in the organic-treatment variants and in the inorganic treatments has largely been achieved, but there were differences between crops. During the time between 1958 and 1990 the yield increased in all treatments in accordance with the overall trend in the Swedish agriculture, but the increase was highest in the organic treatments (65% in the biodynamic in comparison with 50% in the conventional). The effects of the different fertilizer treatments on product quality are in accordance with findings in the two “daughter experiments” which were based on the original K-experiment. Compared with the conventional treatments, the crude protein content of potatoes and wheat was lower in the organic treatments, but protein quality was higher (i.e. relatively pure protein and essential amino acids, lower amount of free amino acids). Resistance to decomposition and store quality for potatoes were higher in the organic treatments, and in wheat starch quality seemed to be higher.

The organic treatments resulted in a higher soil fertility capacity and in crops with higher quality protein, a higher starch content, and a greater ability to tolerate stressful conditions and long-term storage in comparison with the inorganic treatments. Furthermore, the crops produced in the organic treatments developed a structure that can be studied through a picture formation method (Crystallization with CuCl2). This has also been described as a higher organizational level which is evident in terms of both soil and crop formation as a result of the long-term effects of organic manure compared with conventional NPK-fertilizer. New experiments in Sweden and Finland have been started to study the effects of different organic treatments on farms. Preliminary results of these experiments confirm the described differences between organic and inorganic treatments, but indicate also that the effects of liquid organic manure on quality parameters are more similar to those of inorganic fertilizer.

Introduction

In 1958, Bo D Pettersson and the Scandinavian Research Circle in Järna, Sweden, began an agricultural field experiment to determine in what ways various types of fertilizers affect the soil and final quality of grain and vegetable products. Various quality parameters and quality-assessment methods were developed and tested during the experiment period which spanned 32 years (up to 1990), and several reports have been published (Pettersson, Reents & Wistinghausen, 1992).

Two “daughter experiments” emerged from the K-experiment and were run in parallel with the mother project during 1971-1976 in Uppsala and 1971-1979 in Järna (referred to as UJ-experiments in the following text). In these experiments a comparison was made between two systems, biodynamic farming and conventional farming, in which both fertilizer regimes and crop rotations were studied (Pettersson, 1982; Dlouhy, 1981). Before that, the influence of these systems on quality parameters for potatoes under different climatic and soil conditions also had been studied in different parts of Scandinavia (Pettersson, 1970).

Description of the K-experiment

The K experiment was located at 59° North, 17° East at an elevation of 10 m above sea level. The mean yearly precipitation was 550 mm, and the mean annual temperature was 6 degrees C, with 6-8 snow-free months per year. The soil was a silty loam with an intermediate humus content.

Experimental Layout: To ensure that the field experiment could be used for the plant quality assessments while providing the flexibility to support other experiments that had yet to to designed, a very broad basis was adopted. This scheme included eight different fertilizer treatments, each with a 4-fold crop rotation without repetitions. The size of each subplot was 36 m² gross, with a net harvestable area of 27 m².

The Crop Rotation: Within each fertilizer variant the following crops were rotated without interruption so that in any given year all four would be present: summer wheat (undersown with clover/grass), clover/grass mix, potatoes and beets.

Fertilization Scheme: To facilitate focusing primarily on aspects of crop quality, the fertilizer application rates for the various treatments were adjusted to bring about comparable yields. This applies to the variants 1,2,3,4,7 and 8; variant 5 was not fertilized at all (Tables 1 and 2):

Table 1. The fertilization program (application rates of N- tot, P and K in kg/ha/yr averaged for the years 1958-1990 in parentheses).
K1. Composted manure (82/38/76).: aged half a year with the addition of biodynamic
K2. Composted manure (82/38/76): same as in K1 with the exception that treatments with
K3. Raw manure (95/30/91): with horn and bone meal added to reach 1% contents.
K4. Raw manure + NPK (63/28/66): half the K3 manure rate; half the K6 NPK rate, resp.
K5. Control: unfertilized.
K6. Inorganic NPK (19/19/41)
K7. Inorganic NPK(59/36/81): twice the rate applied in K6.
K8. Inorganic NPK(114/36/81): as in K6 but 4 times the N rate and twice the P and K rates.

Table 2. Breakdown of the fertilization scheme within the rotation, in %.
K1, 2 & 3 Organic –40 60
K6, 7 & 8 P K –40 60 N 20 -40 40

Description of the UJ-experiment

In the UJ experiment conventional (A) and biodynamic (B) treatments were compared with each other in two crop rotations as described below for the experiment in Järna (table 3): Crop rotation 1 represented a rotation without animals, and crop rotation 2 represented a system with animals related to an organic farming system which under Nordic conditions is self-sufficient with fodder with 0.8 CU (cattle units)/ha (average 50 kg N/ha and year).

The field conditions were almost the same as those in the K-experiment. A split-split-plot design was used with three replications. All crops were grown each year. The soil was a silty loam well supplied with plant nutrients but with a low humus content. The weather was drier than normal for the region during the first years of the experiment period and had a strongly negative effect on the yields of the grain and ley.

During 1971-1976 a parallel project was carried out in Uppsala (called UJ-experiment Ultuna) with the same treatments as in Järna (for more details see Dlouhy, 1981). The soil was an intermediate clay, well supplied with plant nutrients and moderately rich in humus.

Table 3. Crop rotation and fertilization scheme in UJ Experiment in Järna 1971-1979.

Yield and soil fertility

Yield in the K-experiment. The summer wheat and beet yields were increased by fertilization, and a considerable difference was also found between the K1 (compost + B-D sprays) and K2 (compost without sprays) variants. Yields of clover/grass declined in response to fertilizer treatment and were highest in the organic variants. A decrease in the yield of the legume mix can be expected to result in a reduction in nitrogen fixation (Table 4). In the K5 variant that did not receive any fertilizer for 30 years, the yield of ley was on the same level as that in the other treatments, and also here, the yield tended to increase over the period, although the increase was not as pronounced.

Table 4. Average yields during 1958-1989 in dt/ha/yr for single crops

In terms of their 32-year averages, the yields are all comparable with the exception of the control variant (K5) and excluding data from the conversion period for the organic treatments. All yields except for those of the unfertilized variant (K5) increased with successive rotation periods (figure 1). The figures indicate that there was a conversion period of about 8 years during which the yield level was lower in the organic treatments.

Figure 1. K-experiment 1958-1989. Yield, MJ/ha

Crystallization investigation
As with the foregoing results, these tests (Engqvist, 1970; Pettersson, 1982) revealed a similar trend, with organizational traits in the tissues being better in the organically grown samples than in the conventional ones. In the K-experiment, this was true for all studied years between 1966 and 1989.

Influence of previous crop on the quality of potatoes
The effects of ley and barley on quality parameters of succeeding crops differed in some respects. For example, potatoes following a ley tended to show a higher degree of extract dissolution and to have a higher nitrate content compared with potatoes following barley in the UJ-experiment. This type of farming-system effect was not possible to study in the K-experiment which was strictly a fertilization experiment.

Figure 4. Potatoes. K-experiment 1958-1989, UJ-experiment in Järna 1971-1979, UJ-experiment in Uppsala 1971-1976. Difference, in percent, between the biodynamic treatments and the conventional ones for parameters..

Wheat in the K- and UJ-experiments

Average yield
Average yield levels in K1 and K8 were nearly the same. For K2, in which no biodynamic field preparation was carried out, the yield level was significantly lower, and differences were highest during years with a low yield level. In the UJ-experiments, with shorter experimental periods, the yield levels were significantly lower in the biodynamic treatments.

Quality parameters
In wheat as well, the crude protein content was higher in the inorganic treatments in the K-experiment and in both UJ-experiments (Figure 5). However, the content of relatively pure protein was higher in the biodynamic treatments in the K-experiment and higher in the UJ-experiment at Järna (P<0.01 and P<0.1) That the protein quality was higher in the organic treatments was also confirmed by the index for the essential amino acids (EAA-index, Figure 5 a), which was significantly higher in the biodynamic manured systems during the years when it was measured in the UJ-experiment.

Figure 5 a. Index of essential amino acids in the UJ-experiments. Figure 5 b. Amylase activity in wheat in the UJ-experiments.

The resistance against extract dissolution
was also higher in the biodynamic treatments in these studies. In addition, starch quality seemed to be higher in the biodynamic treatments, measured in terms of falling number (in the K-experiment and the UJ-experiment in Järna) and as indicated by amylograms (figure 5 b). The differences, in percent, between the biodynamic treatments and the conventional ones for quantitative and qualitative parameters for wheat are illustrated in Figure 6.C

Figure 6. Wheat. K-experiment, 1958-1989, UJ-experiment in Järna, 1971-1979, UJ-experiment in Uppsala 1971-1976. Difference, in percent, between the biodynamic treatments (K1) and the conventional ones (K8) for quantitative and qualitative parameters for wheat.

Final discussion concerning the significance of the studied quality parameters.

Correlation between crude protein content and other parameters
In the UJ experiment at Järna significant correlations were observed between crude protein content and most of the studied parameters in both potatoes and wheat (Pettersson, 1982). For potatoes this parameter was correlated with dry matter content (negative, P<0.001), relatively pure protein (negative, P<0.01), EAA-index (negative, P<0.001), ascorbic acid content (negative, P<0.001), cooking quality (negative, P<0.01), taste quality (negative, P<0.001), free amino acids (positive, P<0.001), extract dissolution (positive, P<0.001) and darkening of extract (positive, P<0.001). For wheat, the correlations were with EAA-index (negative, P<0.01), extract dissolution (positive P<0.001) falling number (positive P<0.05), gluten content and baking tests (positive, P<0.01). It can thus be concluded that cereals with a high crude protein content, which is generally desired by the baking industry, tend to rank low in terms of biological and physiological quality parameters. Similarly potatoes with a high crude protein content tend to rank low in terms of biological and physiological quality parameters and taste.

Light and shade
The studied parameters were divided into three groups: chemical/biological, physiological and a third called morphological. Parameters falling into the last-mentioned group has been studied through a method based on observations of the morphology of stems in potatoes and a picture formation method (Crystallization with CuCl2). It was assumed that the lower quality of the crops, assessed in terms of these parameters studied here, in the conventionally fertilized systems is similar to what would have been found had the plants been grown under more shaded conditions. Likewise, the higher biological value of the protein and the higher values found for quality parameters are similar to what would have been expected had the plants been grown under full light. In the interpretation, the organic treatments are described as having the same effect as an increase in solar radiation, and likewise, the effects of NPK-treatments are analogous to those induced by an increase in shade (Pettersson, 1982).

“Organization level”
The better protein composition, with a lower content of free amino acids, and better storage properties were attributed to the higher organization level resulting from the organic and biodynamic fertilizing systems. The higher “organization level”, reflected in the higher biological value of the protein and lower content of free amino acids not used in protein synthesis, was correlated with better resistance against pests, less darkening, less extract dissolution and lower losses of potato during storage. Future research should be aimed at improving our understanding of the significance of these qualitative values in terms of their effects on the human health.

Further studies
Upon completion of the K-experiment, a new experiment was begun in both Sweden (1992) and Finland (1995) in which different manure systems were compared in connection with various types of crop rotations on organic farms. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the differences between composted, non-composted and liquid manure in terms of their effects on the parameters discussed here and to develop effective methods for regularly testing product quality. In addition, the biodynamic preparation treatments are being studied so that their effects can be predicted more reliably. Preliminary results from studies in potatoes in Finland indicate that the use of liquid manure, like mineral fertilizer, tends to decrease the biological value. The ultimate goal is to tailor the fertilizing regime to the soil, climate and crops in a way that offers both a good yield an a healthy product with a high nutrient value.

From Int’l Conference on Agricultural Production & Nutrition, Tufts Univ., Boston, MA, 1997 by:
1. Artur Granstedt, Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Partala Research Station for Ecological Agriculture, FIN-51900 Juva, Finland
2. Lars Kjellenberg, Biodynamic Research Institute, Skilleby, S-153 00 Järna, Sweden