Before the advent of farming, early man had a variegated diet – eating plants, animals, berries, seeds. Then humans discovered agriculture. But only certain plants and animals could be farmed, and so humans came to rely on an agricultural monoculture.

Humans then set up barriers to protect their crops and worked to eradicate animal pests that ate them. As humanity progressed, this practice only grew. Man invented better and more powerful ways to protect his crops, creating various toxic compounds and genetic modifications to increase yields, and destroying many native habitats in the process.

The result is that modern agriculture has become one of the biggest threats there is to biodiversity. In the quest for greater yields, modern farming practices are simply aimed at eradicating anything that hinders us from achieving production.

But organic farming helps to enhance the variety of life in an ecosystem, increasing biodiversity. That is because it is based on the idea that humans can farm in a way that cooperates with the ecosystem, rather than destroying it. More than 700 studies have confirmed that organic farming enhances biodiversity much more than conventional farming. Here are a few ways it does so.