Organic Food Worse for the Climate
The crops per hectare are lower in organic farming, which leads to greater indirect carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation.
“Our study shows that organic peas, farmed in Sweden, have around a 50 percent bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed peas. For some foodstuffs, there is an even bigger difference – for example, with organic Swedish winter wheat the difference is closer to 70 percent,” says Stefan Wirsenius, an associate professor from Chalmers, and one of those responsible for the study.
The reason why organic food is so much worse for the climate is that the yields per hectare are much lower, primarily because fertilisers are not used. To produce the same amount of organic food, you therefore need a much bigger area of land.
Credit:: Yen Strandqvist
The ground-breaking aspect of the new study is the conclusion that this difference in land usage results in organic food causing a much larger climate impact.
“The greater land-use in organic farming leads indirectly to higher carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to deforestation,” explains Stefan Wirsenius. “The world’s food production is governed by international trade, so how we farm in Sweden influences deforestation in the tropics. If we use more land for the same amount of food, we contribute indirectly to bigger deforestation elsewhere in the world.”
Even organic meat and dairy products are – from a climate point of view – worse than their conventionally produced equivalents, claims Stefan Wirsenius.
“Because organic meat and milk production uses organic feed-stocks, it also requires more land than conventional production. This means that the findings on organic wheat and peas in principle also apply to meat and milk products. We have not done any specific calculations on meat and milk, however, and have no concrete examples of this in the article,” he explains.
A new metric: Carbon Opportunity Cost
The researchers used a new metric, which they call “Carbon Opportunity Cost”, to evaluate the effect of greater land-use contributing to higher carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation. This metric takes into account the amount of carbon that is stored in forests, and thus released as carbon dioxide as an effect of deforestation. The study is among the first in the world to make use of this metric.
Stefan Wirsenius, Associate Professor at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment.
Credit: Johan Bodell
“The fact that more land use leads to greater climate impact has not often been taken into account in earlier comparisons between organic and conventional food,” says Stefan Wirsenius. “This is a big oversight, because, as our study shows, this effect can be many times bigger than the greenhouse gas effects, which are normally included. It is also serious because today in Sweden, we have politicians whoseal goals is to increase production of organic food. If thoseat goals isare implemented, the climate influence from Swedish food production will probably increase a lot.”
So why have earlier studies not taken into account land-use and its relationship to carbon dioxide emissions?
Contacts and sources:
Johanna Wilde / Stefan Wirsenius
Chalmers University of Technology
Citation: Journal Reference: Assessing the efficiency of changes in land use for mitigating climate change.Timothy D. Searchinger, Stefan Wirsenius, Tim Beringer, Patrice Dumas. Nature, 2018; 564 (7735): 249 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0757-z
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2018/12/organic-food-worse-for-climate.html
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Frankenfood BS, adding a fish gene to a plant and patenting it does not make it better in any way. Then they add the toxins, pesticides and herbicides and chemical fertilizers. If you actually knew what is in the food you would revolt. Those dead zones at the mouth of the rivers should be clue enough. There is square miles of unplanted land that feed the world. The elite garbage would have you believe there is none. As far as them showing you this propaganda picture of forest growing on an unplanted area I have this to say. Go out and look at the forest and realize they have reduced them to scrub brush and it will take at least 75 years before it can actually be called a forest again.