Nearly half of people on average income living in Europe can only afford to buy the equivalent of a one-bedroom apartment or studio flat, whilst 39% of Europeans cannot even afford to rent a property this size.

What makes more sense when farming wheat – strips of wildflowers along fields or organic farming? Both options provide financial support via the European Union as environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices. An international research team, including researchers from the University of Göttingen, has now compared the ecological and economic benefits of these two farming methods in fields planted with winter wheat. They found that both measures increased biodiversity by 20 to 30 percent compared to conventionally farmed wheat fields. From an economic perspective, the organic fields were the most profitable. Although yields were only half as high as those of conventionally farmed wheat, profits were one and a half times higher. The results were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.