Photo credit: Shinazy Shinazy

New research from Germany shows that organic mixed farming systems have higher energy efficiency than multiple other farming systems. The paper, published in the European Journal of Agronomy, looked at differences in energy use efficiency between organic and conventional mixed farming, arable farming, and agroforestry systems. Energy use efficiency is an important indicator of the environmental impact, resource consumption and economic performance of a farming system. The results showed that organic mixed farming outperformed other systems in the context of energy use efficiency, dry matter yield, and energy output. “Based on the results, we concluded that mixed farming is one of the best ways of producing food with high energy use efficiency under the conditions of organic farming,” the researchers wrote.