Preindustrial Agriculture Versus Organic Agriculture the Land Cost of Sustainability

The land cost a good indicator of sustainability through organic production was investigated. Organic agriculture (OA) aspired to return to more closed cycles of energy and materials, maximise re-use, employ rotation systems, use nutrients of organic origin, and renewable energy sources. The results showed that the maintenance of draft livestock obliged farmers to devote most of their non-irrigated lands to barley, and even to sow it on irrigated land and include forage plants or cereals-fodder such as broad beans, millet and maize in their rotations. It was concluded that an increase in the area devoted to OA must go hand in hand with an increase in composting and local reuse of agricultural, forestry, agroindustrial and urban by-products.