Zoology Agriculture

World’s loudest
male bird bellows
Going fully organic would
at nearby females increase farm emissions
Adam Vaughan Michael Le Page

A BIRD that lives on mountains deep GREENHOUSE gas emissions and 4 per cent lower for organic do use pesticides) or for the sake
in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest would rise if all farms in animal products. However, of wildlife. And not all products
has the loudest voice of any bird England and Wales went organic yields per hectare are are equal, he says. Organic bread
species recorded so far. organic. Though the emissions also lower on average. For is the worst, because wheat
Both songs of the male white of individual farms would go wheat and barley, for instance, yields are so much lower, but
bellbird (Procnias albus) are loud, down, much more food would yields are just half of those of for vegetables, the differences
but one is extremely so – at an have to be imported, as the conventional farms. This means are much smaller.
amount they would produce 1.5 times as much land would Going 100 per cent
You really don’t would decrease substantially. be needed to grow the same organic could also harm global
want to perch “The key message from my amount of these foods. biodiversity. The extra land
next to a male perspective is that you can’t The estimated increase used for farming would mean
ANSELMO D’AFFONSECA

white bellbird really have your cake and eat it,” in emissions varies greatly, the land available solely for
says Laurence Smith, now at the depending on where the wildlife would be smaller and
Royal Agricultural University extra farmland comes from. more fragmented (Nature
in the UK, who was part of the If only half comes from turning Communications, 10.1038/
team that ran the numbers. grassland into farms, the s41467-019-12622-7).
Smith is a proponent of organic increase could be as low as 20 per
average of 116 decibels, it is on a farming and says “there are a cent. If grassland that would “For wheat and barley,
par with a piledriver and beats all lot of benefits to the organic otherwise have been reforested organic yields per
previously documented birds approach”, but his analysis is turned into farmland, hectare are half of those
(Current Biology, doi.org/dczb). shows that organic farming emissions could nearly double. of conventional farms”
“It’s really, really distinctive and has downsides too. “Organic farming has
it’s unusual because it’s very simple. Farming and changes in this greenhouse gas problem,” Rob Percival at the Soil
It’s one loud note, like a horn,” says land use, such as cutting down says team member Guy Kirk Association, which certifies
Jeffrey Podos at the University of forests, are responsible for a at Cranfield University in the organic farms in the UK,
Massachusetts. third of all greenhouse gas UK. “You can’t ignore it.” thinks the analysis is “flawed”.
It isn’t just the volume that emissions. That means reducing This doesn’t necessarily “The study assumes no
is unusual, but also the fact that farming emissions and the land mean people should stop eating change in diet, which is clearly
the males sing so loudly so close needed for farming is required organic produce, says Smith. untenable,” says Percival.
to the females. Most animals that to limit further global warming. Individuals might choose “Dietary change will benefit the
make very loud sounds – such Smith and his colleagues organic food for other reasons, public’s health and free up land,
as howler monkeys – are trying to found that emissions per unit such as to reduce their pesticide making an organic scenario
communicate over long distances. of food are, on average, 20 per exposure (though contrary to entirely feasible.”
Joseph Tobias at Imperial College cent lower for organic crops popular belief, organic farmers There is no doubt that
London speculates that the close reducing meat and dairy
proximity suggests the loudness consumption would reduce
of the song is a sexual signal. emissions. Per kilogram,
“If females detect the loudest emissions from animal-based
males from longer range and find foods can be up to 50 times
the loudest males most attractive those from plant foods, so the
at close range, then sexual selection kind of food we eat matters
would drive the evolution of more than whether it is
extremely loud songs,” he says. organic or produced locally,
Another possible explanation says Hannah Ritchie at the
is that, unlike most birds, the University of Oxford.
species has great abs, with thick Smith says the best option
and defined stomach muscles. may be to use some organic
KELVIN MURRAY/GETTY IMAGES

The loudness also seems to be and conventional farming

a by-product of the ecological niche methods in combination.  ❚
the birds have evolved to occupy:
their beaks open remarkably wide, Most organic foods
allowing them to grab the fruit they have smaller yields, so
eat, as well as make a loud song. ❚ they require more land

26 October 2019 | New Scientist | 9