Organic farms' high beetle numbers and good microbe diversity results in fewer disease-causing bacteria, recent research suggests
crops, grown without recourse to synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, are credited with miraculous properties by many of their fans. Unfortunately, there is little scientific evidence that they are more nutritious than those produced by conventional means. But their supporters argue that the methods used to raise them bring other benefits, too. And here they may be correct.
Of the fields in the study, 15 were farmed conventionally and 26 organically. Dr Jones and his colleagues found from their traps that organic farms did indeed foster large dung-beetle populations, which removed significantly more pig faeces over the course of a week than did beetles dwelling on conventional farms. They also found, by analysing the soil samples, that organic farms had more diverse populations of faeces-consuming microbes than did conventional farms.
To establish whether high beetle numbers and good microbe diversity really did result in fewer disease-causing bacteria, the researchers followed up their field work with laboratory experiments. In one such they presented three species of dung beetles with pig faeces that had been inoculated with a cocktail of harmful strains of
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