Organic farming has been proved to have all kinds of environmental benefits for birds, plants, insects, and even microbes. Now it looks like those benefits carry over to some of the mammals that live around those farms too.

The news comes from Argentina, where researchers at Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto studied small wildlife living on the borders of both conventional and organic farms. They found that several small mammals were more abundant around organic farms, especially during the summer months, most likely because the farms offered better habitat.

Their research was published last week in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

The team chose to study farms in Argentina in part because of the rapid rise in industrial agriculture in the country. In 1996, multinational ag giant Monsanto set up shop thee, bringing its Roundup Ready crops with it. The crops, including soy, corn, and cotton, could handle systemic herbicides like glyphosate and highly toxic substances like 2,4,D—but the residents living nearby couldn’t.

With the higher crop yields came higher cancer rates and birth defects in humans, and environmental threats as well.

“Agricultural intensification has become an important threat to biodiversity in Argentinian agroecosystems,” said study coauthor José Priotto, a professor in the university’s department of natural sciences.

Most of the small mammals the researchers found were rodents, which some other farms might have considered pests. One example is the drylands vesper mouse—an important herbivore that can play a crucial role in the food web for a variety of other species. Priotto said a diverse set of small mammals near a farm can improve the environment by spreading seeds and eating insects that might otherwise plague the farm.

“Changes in the small mammal community composition may be used as indicators of disturbed environments,” Priotto said. For example, if populations boom for species that can survive in a wide range of habitats, it can be an indication that habitat specialists—species that can only survive in a narrow range of environmental conditions—are suffering, or a signal of other disruptions in the natural cycle.

What led to more habitat-specialist species thriving at organic farms? Researchers found that organic farms did not use pesticides, which meant more bugs were available for the animals to eat. The farms also were more likely to leave areas of earth untilled. That allowed weeds to grow, which the mammals could use as food and habitat.

The additional wild plants and insects provide ground cover and ready food for herbivores and insect eaters that might otherwise suffer on conventional farms.

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Priotto said this study could help farms around the world and might offer an especially important lesson for Argentina—a major U.S. food supplier where organic farming is not yet a big part of the market. “We hope that our study contributes to considering this kind of management as an environment-friendly option to be applied in Argentinian agroecosystems,” he said.

The research may help Argentina’s threatened biodiversity along the way.