Lawrence Woodward

Whole Health Agriculture

This article concerns the organic movement's aim to promote health across the entire farm system as outlined by the IFOAM Principle of Health (IFOAM 2005). It discusses the implementation of Health by organic farmers in Austria, Germany and the UK. Results from an international survey and a series of workshops on health promoting strategies and pri...

The project 'Developing best practice networks of health in organic agricultural systems' aimed to create an international network of farmers and scientists to jointly develop new and interdisciplinary approaches to health measurement and research in ecological agriculture. The project identified personal philosophies and statements of best practic...

We aim to create an international network of farmers and scientists to jointly develop new and interdisciplinary approaches to health measurement and research in ecological agriculture. First, to establish common ground, we identified personal principles and strategies of best practice that make organic farmers successful in running healthy farm sy...

This paper compares nitrate leaching losses from organic farms, which depended on legumes for their nitrogen inputs (66 site years) with those from conventional farms using fertilizers under similar cropping and climatic conditions (188 site years). The conventional farms were within Nitrate Sensitive Areas in England, but sites following special p...

Real improvement in agricultural sustainability requires that its assessment should involve more than monitoring changes for research and policy evaluation purposes. Producers need practical information and guidance on how to change their systems to affect non-fi nancial and fi nancial outcomes. Recent organic farming benchmarking projects have sho...

Organic farming is frequently dismissed as being unscientific, but this perception is based on a lack of understanding of the underlying concepts. Researchers in the organic field accept the scientific discipline whilst at the same time seeking new methodologies to explore the holistic character of the agricultural enterprise. Of central importance...

Mining operations conducted at the Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine at Clear Lake, California, from 1872–1957, together with acid mine drainage since abandonment, deposited ca. 100 metric tons of mercury (Hg) in the sediments of Clear Lake. In 1992 Hg in surficial sediments (up to 183 mg kg-1 total Hg and 15.9 g kg-1 methyl Hg) exhibited a classic point s...

Although I admire the scientific discipline, I frequently find myself wondering whether the traditional approach to science involving testable hypotheses, replication, statistical significance and repeatability is adequate to meet the challenge of understanding such things as the complexity of whole ecological systems without taking apart and destr...

Organic farming systems often include livestock to use the leguminous forages which supply nitrogen (N) to the grain crops in the rotation. An alternative approach (especially relevant to farms with ‘set-aside’) may be to manage leguminous green manure crops by repeatedly cutting and mulching them directly in the field. An experiment (carried out o...

Benthic invertebrates from Clear Lake, site of an inactive mercury (Hg) mine, were analyzed for population and community level parameters in response to a significant point source of sediment-associated Hg. Using multiple regression, at least one taxon (Placobdella leeches) showed a significant decline and another taxon (Procladius midges) showed a...

This paper reports the results of a trial studying the accumulation of nitrate in 3 varieties of lettuce grown outside and fertilised with composted farm yard manure (FYMC) or with readily soluble compound fertiliser. Three rates of nitrogen application were used equivalent to 0, 80 and 160 kg N ha−1.There was no significant difference in nitrate a...

This paper briefly reviews the source and extent of ingested nitrates in the human diet. In response to the possible health risk, several countries in Europe have set maximum and/or recommended concentrations of tissue nitrate in vegetables and salad crops. The consequence of adopting such limits in Great Britain is considered.In order to assess th...

There can be no doubt that the state of our planet's environment, the health; the economic and social plight of peoples in all parts of the world is far more parlous than it was 25 years ago. The warning from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board in their 2005 report puts it succinctly. "Human activity is putting such strain on the natural func...

The regular report from Elm Farm Research Centre - the Organic Research Centre in the UK - covering its own research and information and that of other relevant issues

A collection of technical, policy and research articles on organic food and food systems