A consulting soil scientist is dismissing what he calls pseudo-scientific claims made to support movements such as homeopathy and organics.
In a paper to a grasslands conference in New South Wales, Doug Edmeades says it's time for evidence-based science to reclaim the morale high ground.
He says science policy makers need to exclude pseudo science if agricultural science is to be part of the solution to producing more food to for a rapidly increasing world populatrion.
''Unfortunately in this age of new age thinking, there's a plethora of such claims,'' he said.
Dr Edmeades includes organics in the pseudo science camp.
He says organic farming produces at best only about 68% of the yields of conventional farming and there's no evidence that it's better for the environment, or that organic food is healthier.
''The organic movement is based on a falsity,'' he said. ''It doesn't have any magical properties.''
