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CHAMPAIGN, ILL. (AP) -- A study from Stanford University researchers says traditional farming has kept some greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

Steven Davis is one of the three researchers who wrote the study. Davis says although traditional agriculture isn't perfect, the study found advances in farming have allowed farmers to grow much more food in the same space.

That has reduced the need to plow billions of additional acres and thereby prevented the release of billions of tons of greenhouse gases.

Farmers like Leon Corzine of Assumption, Ill., welcome the results.

Corzine says he's been saying for years that farmers have become more efficient.

But critics like Bill Freese of the Center For Food Safety argue the study is flawed and masks farming's environmental problems.

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