Jul 12, 2025 06:07 PM
Would widespread adoption of organic farming practices be a good idea from a climate change perspective?
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/...rspective/
EXCERPTS: Agriculture plays a complex role when it comes to climate change. Farming does contribute a significant share of certain greenhouse gasses (nitrous oxide and methane)—as much as 10% in the US BY USDA estimates—, and quite a bit of CO2 is also emitted through fuel consumption and for nitrogen fertilizer production. However, there are specific farming methods that can help mitigate climate change through long-term carbon sequestration....
[...] Even though the European Union has the laudable intention to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as a continent, its policymakers persist in their reluctance to allow their farmers to utilize the very technologies that could help them to play an optimal role both in terms of net emissions and the food supply. Favoring organic production is just another aspect of that anti-technology paradigm.
So, what would it take to convince policy influencers that their climate and organic goals need a rethink? [...] authors from the UK argued:
"We predict major shortfalls in production of most agricultural products against a conventional baseline. Direct GHG emissions are reduced with organic farming, but when increased overseas land use to compensate for shortfalls in domestic supply are factored in, net emissions are greater. Enhanced soil carbon sequestration could offset only a small part of the higher overseas emissions."
Conversion to organic on that scale is certainly unrealistic, but there is another problematic issue. What tends to get lost in this ideologically-charged debate is the reality that there are not just two kinds of farming: conventional and organic, and that they are diametrically opposed.
In fact, there are a range of specific practices possible under both general “banners,” and they have important ramifications for both productivity and environmental stewardship. It is instructive to look at a historical example of “on the ground” research from the EU that provides data about some specific farming methods.
[...] This is a complex and critically important topic that deserves both high level theoretical assessment and on-the-ground experimentation. The eight-year-old Knudsen et al paper described here represents a good example of real world data generation, and it’s without ideological spin.
EU policymakers should be looking at this sort of data to inform their thinking about how to align their agriculture with their overall climate goals. Optimized conventional systems are a more promising option than pursuit of the speculative, organic-leaning path proposed under Farm to Fork. (MORE - missing details)
https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/...rspective/
EXCERPTS: Agriculture plays a complex role when it comes to climate change. Farming does contribute a significant share of certain greenhouse gasses (nitrous oxide and methane)—as much as 10% in the US BY USDA estimates—, and quite a bit of CO2 is also emitted through fuel consumption and for nitrogen fertilizer production. However, there are specific farming methods that can help mitigate climate change through long-term carbon sequestration....
[...] Even though the European Union has the laudable intention to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as a continent, its policymakers persist in their reluctance to allow their farmers to utilize the very technologies that could help them to play an optimal role both in terms of net emissions and the food supply. Favoring organic production is just another aspect of that anti-technology paradigm.
So, what would it take to convince policy influencers that their climate and organic goals need a rethink? [...] authors from the UK argued:
"We predict major shortfalls in production of most agricultural products against a conventional baseline. Direct GHG emissions are reduced with organic farming, but when increased overseas land use to compensate for shortfalls in domestic supply are factored in, net emissions are greater. Enhanced soil carbon sequestration could offset only a small part of the higher overseas emissions."
Conversion to organic on that scale is certainly unrealistic, but there is another problematic issue. What tends to get lost in this ideologically-charged debate is the reality that there are not just two kinds of farming: conventional and organic, and that they are diametrically opposed.
In fact, there are a range of specific practices possible under both general “banners,” and they have important ramifications for both productivity and environmental stewardship. It is instructive to look at a historical example of “on the ground” research from the EU that provides data about some specific farming methods.
[...] This is a complex and critically important topic that deserves both high level theoretical assessment and on-the-ground experimentation. The eight-year-old Knudsen et al paper described here represents a good example of real world data generation, and it’s without ideological spin.
EU policymakers should be looking at this sort of data to inform their thinking about how to align their agriculture with their overall climate goals. Optimized conventional systems are a more promising option than pursuit of the speculative, organic-leaning path proposed under Farm to Fork. (MORE - missing details)