Fanatic in residence here to unload on organic farming. Don’t get me wrong, the odd drop of orgasmic, I mean organic, Word stop wrecking my article, food, like wine is good, but let’s consider how we get there:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50129353
“A new study suggests that a switch to 100% organic food production in England and Wales would see an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions. While going fully organic would produce fewer direct emissions than conventional farming, researchers say it would limit food production. As a result more imports would be needed, resulting in up to five times more land being used overseas. Overall emissions could rise by 21% compared to the conventional approach. Farming is generally estimated to be responsible for around 9% of overall UK greenhouse gas emissions, due to the use of artificial fertilisers, but also through emissions of methane from animals and from changes in soil conditions. This new study aims to assess what the impact would be on greenhouse gases if all food production in England and Wales switched to organic. Such a move, the researchers say would see a drop in emissions of about 20% for crops and around 4% for livestock. However, the study predicts significant drops in food production, by around 40% compared to conventional farming. The scientists involved say that decrease is due to smaller crop yields and the introduction of nitrogen-fixing legumes into crop rotations, reducing the amount of land available for production. So crops like wheat and barley would see significant falls in production. For livestock, the numbers of sheep and beef cattle in the scenario would increase but the volume of meat would go down, due to lower carcase weights and longer finishing times under organic management.”