The study by Andersons, the farm business consultants, is titled ‘The impact of rising oil prices on organic and non-organic farm profitability’. It shows that with oil at $200 per barrel the margins of non-organic combinable crop systems range from £296 to £348 whilst the organic margins range from £371 to £411. This is mainly due to the high cost of artificial fertilisers – a fossil fuel heavy industry - used in non-organic systems which could rise to $550 per tonne. 

At these prices, the claimed efficiency of fossil-fuel and fertiliser dependent industrial farming begins to decrease sharply. Organic farming does not use artificial chemical fertilisers, instead building soil fertilitythrough crop rotations and particularly the use of clover that fixes nitrogen naturally from the atmosphere using the sun's energy and photosynthesis. Clover can fix 200kg of nitrogen per hectare over a year. 

The report takes into account crop rotations which are based on the rotations of actual farms Andersons work with, and the costs and returns are based on current figures.  

Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said:
“This study suggests that as oil inevitably becomes scarcer and costs more, economic forces will increasingly favour organic farming. Organic systems are not perfect, but they do use less energy, generally omit fewer greenhouse gases, can sequester carbon in the soil, provide more jobs and support more wildlife. This report suggests they could also offer a more secure long-term financial future for the UK’s farmers.”

Due to rising input costs NFU president Peter Kendell recently said that ”conventional farmers will have to think harder about rotations as ways of reducing fertiliser and pesticide input."