FROM farmers' markets to happy chickens, sales of organic food have rocketed in recent years. And to meet this demand, the share of farmland used for organic production has also increased in many rich countries. Switzerland has upped its share from under 2% in the mid-1990s to over 10% today, the highest in the OECD. But as global food prices soar, hurting the poor in particular, environmentalists may find organic farming trickier to promote. Organic farming produces far less than conventional intensive methods, and so more land must be farmed for the same yield.

AFP