His analysis indicates that there is still a significant yield gap between organic and traditional farming which needs to be addressed. This is significant because the desert climate in the western regions reduces the risks of diseases and pests other farming regions in the country with wetter climate suffer from, thus allowing for less pesticide and herbicide use. For the most part, higher yields for organic production were reserved for crops that are mostly planted in the West. In 7% the production was equal and in the remaining 84%, traditional farming yielded far higher results. Out of 370 compared crops, which represent about 80% of US croplands, in just 55 cases, or 9%, organic farming yielded higher production. Organic farming simply isn’t productive enough (yet) to be a viable option for a large-scale transition. Organic farming may be better for the environment on acre per acre comparison, but if you throw additional 100 million acres into the equation and all the accompanying effects that go with such (croplands in 2012 occupied some 389.7 million acres), that advantages soon melts away. To put that number into perspective, all national parks in America take up 52.2 million acres, so we would need twice that and then some more. One of the most astonishing facts is that, under current circumstances, in order for the entire US farm production to be organic, it would require 109 million acres of additional farmlands.