The organic versus conventional farming debate that runs in hipster circles often ignores a hugely important aspect of agriculture: how either method impacts crop yields. It is pretty easy to rail against the evils of synthetic pesticides when the biggest ramification of your views is having to walk half a block out of your way or spend an extra $1.50 for an all organic, non-GMO, shade grown, free-range, blah blah blah kale smoothie instead of a regular one.

But it is not quite as simple when trying to grow enough calories to sustain our planet’s growing population on a shrinking number of arable acres. A radical new venture, undertaken in rural China in 2009, has helped maximize crop yields, getting them within a hair of their theoretical maximum. And it did not rely on any fancy new chemicals or technologies. Rather, it “deployed several time-honored education-extension methods coupled with innovative outreach mechanisms.” In other words, scientists moved in with and tutored the farmers.

In 2009, professors and graduate students from China Agricultural University went to live in farming communities in Quzhou County, about 300 miles south of Beijing. In order to determine why crop yields were so much lower than they could be, the scientists devised a clever experimental design: they asked the farmers. It turns out the farmers were not planting the best seed varieties for their local soil, they were not planting them at the optimal densities, and they were not applying fertilizers properly.