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Research

Every figure this site quotes, with the study it came from and the date it was true. If we cannot show you where a number came from, we do not print the number.

The figures

14 in use across the site.

Explainers, with their sources attached

5 of our 8 articles end with the work they rest on.

Why we want to fund more of it

What if we invested more in understanding how to grow food with fewer synthetic inputs?

Agriculture has achieved something extraordinary. Over generations, science, technology and farming knowledge have enabled us to produce more food for a growing population. Along the way, agricultural research has developed synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, new crop varieties, biotechnology and increasingly sophisticated farming systems. These technologies have helped shape modern agriculture.

But we believe another field of research deserves far greater attention. How much further could we go if we invested seriously in farming systems designed to reduce our reliance on synthetic inputs?

Could we maintain or improve productivity while building healthier soils?

Could better rotations, mechanical technologies and new farming systems reduce our reliance on herbicides?

Could biodiversity, beneficial insects and biological controls reduce our reliance on insecticides?

Could plant breeding close some of the yield gaps that currently exist between organic and conventional production?

Could we develop better ways of supplying nutrients without relying as heavily on synthetic fertilisers?

And what would these different approaches mean for our soils, waterways, biodiversity, climate, farmers and food?

These are big questions. We want to help fund the research needed to answer them.

We aren’t looking for research that tells us we’re right

That’s important. Organic Matters exists because we believe organic agriculture has an important role to play in the future of food. But belief isn’t enough. We want evidence.

There is already substantial scientific research comparing different agricultural systems. It points to important potential benefits from organic and other lower-input farming approaches, while also identifying genuine challenges and trade-offs. Those deserve to be investigated, not ignored.

If organic farming improves biodiversity, we want to understand how and under what conditions. If it improves soil health, we want to measure it. If particular organic systems reduce certain environmental impacts, we want to quantify them. If yields are lower, we want researchers working out why — and how that gap might be reduced. If an organic practice causes an unintended consequence, we want to know that too. And if the evidence challenges something the organic movement has long believed, we shouldn’t hide from it.

Good research doesn’t begin with the answer.

There is so much we still need to understand

We want to help support credible research across agriculture, food, health and the environment. Research could explore areas such as:

Soil health and microbiology. Biodiversity and pollinators. Water quality. Nutrient cycling. Carbon and climate. Crop yields. Biological pest and disease control. Non-chemical weed management. Plant breeding for organic systems. Food composition and nutrient density. Pesticide residues and exposure. Farmer profitability. Animal health and welfare. Resilience to drought and extreme weather.

And, where appropriate and scientifically possible, the long-term relationships between different agricultural systems, the food they produce, the environment and human health.

Some of that research may strengthen the case for organic agriculture. Some of it may not. Both results are valuable. Because our purpose should never be to manufacture evidence for something we already believe. Our purpose should be to discover what works.

Imagine what we could learn

Imagine long-term research following organic, conventional and other farming systems side by side. Not for one season. For decades.

Measuring the soil beneath them. The water leaving them. The insects living within them. The carbon entering and leaving them. The nutrients being added and removed. The food being produced. The yields achieved. The resources required. The profitability of the farms. And their resilience when the weather doesn’t behave as expected.

Imagine researchers working alongside hundreds of real farms so we could understand what happens outside experimental plots. Imagine plant breeders developing varieties specifically suited to organic production. Engineers developing better ways to control weeds without herbicides. Scientists investigating the extraordinary relationships between plants, fungi, bacteria and insects. Economists examining the full costs and benefits of different ways of producing food.

There is an enormous amount still to discover.

The biggest question

Ultimately, there is one question sitting above all the others: how can we produce enough nutritious food for people while protecting the natural systems that agriculture itself depends upon?

Organic agriculture may be part of that answer. We believe it can be an important part. But rather than simply asking people to take our word for it, we want to help build the evidence.

Independent means independent

Research funded through Organic Matters should be credible enough to withstand scrutiny. Funding should support properly designed research conducted with appropriate scientific independence. Researchers should be free to report what they find — including results that challenge our expectations. Methodologies should be transparent. Conflicts of interest should be disclosed. And wherever practical, findings should be publicly available so farmers, researchers, policymakers and consumers can examine the evidence themselves.

Funding research should buy the opportunity to ask important questions. It should never buy the answer.

Help us fund the questions that need asking

Changing agriculture requires more than telling people to buy organic. Farmers need better tools. Scientists need research funding. Policymakers need evidence. Consumers need trustworthy information. And organic agriculture itself needs to keep improving.

That’s why we want growers, researchers, universities, businesses, philanthropists, foundations and ordinary people to help us fund independent research. A person might contribute $10. A business might contribute $10,000. A philanthropic organisation might help fund an entire research programme.

Together, those contributions can help create something enormously valuable: better evidence about how we can produce food while protecting the natural systems that make producing food possible. Our soil. Our water. Our biodiversity. Our climate. Our farmers. Our communities. And future generations.

We already know how to produce extraordinary amounts of food. Now let’s invest in understanding how we can do it better.

Fund the research. Follow the evidence. Grow something better.

Organic Matters

Support our research

Research funding sits with the other causes on the support page, alongside conversion grants, seed sovereignty and training. Nothing is collected yet — the page says plainly what is built and what is not.

Support our research now →

What this page will not do

Organic research is contested, and a page that only listed the studies favourable to organics would be advocacy wearing a lab coat. Where a finding is disputed, thin, or rests on a single study, the note says so rather than leaving the figure to imply more than it can carry.

Found something wrong? Tell us — a corrected figure is worth more to us than a flattering one.