New Study Finds Double the Profits from Sustainable Farming

Farming in Maryland is a significant source of both greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient run-off. As a result, farmers are increasingly adopting "regenerative," or "sustainable," farming practices in order to mitigate the environmental damage from industrial-scale farming. Examples of sustainable farming practices include no-till farming, cover crops, plant diversity, and other methods of integrated pest management.

A new study in PeerJ reports that even though sustainable farming sometimes produces lower yields -- especially in the first few years -- that cost is more than off-set by the savings from spending less money on pesticides and fertilizers, and from the price premium that sustainably raised products command.

In the study, corn yields on sustainable farms were 29 percent lower, but that corn earned double the profits than did conventional corn.

You can read the study report here.