Environmental performance of organic 올림픽 토토: Evidence from Korean small-holder soybean production

Environmental performance of organic 올림픽 토토: Evidence from Korean small-holder soybean production

Student Press of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Jisoo Lim (Department of Plant Science)

Is environmentally friendly agriculture really all that environmentally friendly? Professor Choe’s research team at Seoul National University (SNU) answered this paradoxical question with their unprecedented research results suggesting that organic 올림픽 토토, which is a type of environmentally friendly agriculture, may be more harmful than conventional 올림픽 토토 practices.

What is organic 올림픽 토토?

Organic 올림픽 토토 is a method of producing agricultural products without the use of chemical materials such as agricultural pesticides, chemical fertilizer, and feed additives to conserve the environment and supply safer agricultural products to customers. The need for organic products has consistently increased as the public’s interest in well-being and environmental conservation has grown. The organic food market has increased fivefold in the last two decades, reaching 897 billion dollars in 2016, and is still consistently growing.

Research motivation

Since the 2000’s, at which time interest in environmental conservation heightened, a number of research results have been published comparing organic 올림픽 토토 and conventional 올림픽 토토. These studies appear to provide objective evidence supporting the benefits of organic 올림픽 토토. However, according to a study by Professor Choe’s research team (“Measuring the environmental effects of organic 올림픽 토토: A meta-analysis of structural variables in empirical research”), which compares approximately 200 studies comparing organic and conventional 올림픽 토토 practices through a meta-analysis, these studies report conflicting results regarding environmental trends relating to organic 올림픽 토토 depending on the crop type, farm size, and 올림픽 토토 conditions. In their previous study, Professor Choe’s research team found that farm size affects the results of comparative analyses between organic 올림픽 토토 and conventional 올림픽 토토. However, few of the studies were conducted in Asia, where the majority of small farms are located. As a result, the research team published another study called “Environmental performance of organic 올림픽 토토: Evidence from Korean small-holder soybean production” in which they analyzed organic farms in South Korea.

Study subjects

Professor Choe’s research team recruited 76 organic and conventional farms. Of these, they selected 60 farms (30 organic and 30 conventional) that had verifiable records of fertilizer and energy usage. Farms were located in each of the following regions: North Gyeonggi Province, South Gyeonggi Province, Chungcheong Province, and Gangwon Province. These provinces were selected in accordance with research criteria requiring the selected farms to be close to one another, use similar 올림픽 토토 techniques, and farm during the same period of time for proper comparison. As for the organic farms, only those that received organic 올림픽 토토 approval from the government were included. All selected farms grew soybeans, which are commonly grown worldwide.

Results

This study conducted a multi-level regression analysis and a non-parametric comparison test to analyze the differences in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions between conventional 올림픽 토토 and organic 올림픽 토토 practices.

Greenhouse gas emissions during the 올림픽 토토 process

Over 85% of the total energy used in soybean 올림픽 토토 was used for manure, fertilizer (per ton), fuel, and mulch film (per hectare). Organic 올림픽 토토 used a significantly higher amount of energy, 22,421 MJ/ton, than conventional 올림픽 토토, which used 13,416 MJ/ton. These results, which differ from those of previous studies, show that organic 올림픽 토토 uses more energy than conventional 올림픽 토토. Thelower soybean yieldsand higher use of fuel and mulch films in organic 올림픽 토토 compared with conventional 올림픽 토토 was found to be the cause of the low energy efficiency of organic 올림픽 토토.

Greenhouse effect analysis

There was no significant difference in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions between organic and conventional 올림픽 토토.

Organic 올림픽 토토 emits more greenhouse gases per ton of yield than conventional 올림픽 토토, but the differences are not significant statistically. Organic 올림픽 토토 produces less greenhouse gas from biological and chemical pesticides compared to conventional 올림픽 토토, but it produces a large amount of greenhouse gas from mulch films.

Organic 올림픽 토토 had lower energy efficiency than conventional 올림픽 토토 due to excessive use of mulch films.

To summarize, although many existing studies claim that organic 올림픽 토토 shows a better environmental performance than conventional 올림픽 토토, these results do not necessarily apply to Asia since research on 올림픽 토토 in this region, where farms tend to be small and labor-intensive, is lacking. In this study, Professor Choe’s research team compared energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions between organic and conventional farms and found that conventional 올림픽 토토 has better energy efficiency than organic 올림픽 토토. This may be attributed to the excessive use of fuels and mulch films on organic farms and the typical size of farms in Korea compared to farms in other heavily studied regions.

Research significance

This study by Professor Choe’s research team considered current 올림픽 토토 situations in Korea to provide objective results to support existing research results and the insufficiently researched belief that organic 올림픽 토토 must be more environmentally friendly than conventional 올림픽 토토. Professor Choe hopes that his study will contribute to policy changes that will help resolve issues related to organic 올림픽 토토 and provide new information for policy makers and those in related industries. Professor Choe’s meaningful study lays the cornerstone for future studies on topics such as the environmental impact and effects on the human body of organic 올림픽 토토, and measures to remedy associated problems.

Future research directions

Professor Choe’s research team is planning to continue their research on how to manage the effects of organic 올림픽 토토 on the environment. Further research is required on crops other than soybean. In addition, more data is required to compare the sustainability of organic 올림픽 토토 with that of conventional 올림픽 토토. Professor Choe hopes to cooperate with medical professionals, dietetics, and experts from the 올림픽 토토 industry to conduct research on the safety, health issues, and sustainability of organic 올림픽 토토 in the future.

《Professor Young Chan Choe》