What They Don't Tell You About Organic Farming...

Organic food is often labelled as superior in terms of its environmental footprint, nutritional quality and taste to regular, conventional food. My previous post discussed the reasons it is hailed as such. But the truth is, it's not the "be-all-end-all" solution to the environmental issues caused by agriculture.
A main reason for this is the greater land that organic farming requires. According to Clark & Tilman (2017), organic farms use 25%-110% more land than conventional farms! This is because organic fertilizers like manure are not as effective as synthetic ones since they do not release the specific nutrients needed by plants when they need them. This means that farmers will receive less yield per unit of land and therefore be required to use more land to make the same profits as conventional farmers. (Although, certain organic practices like rotational farming and polyculture have been found to reduce land use.)

Photo by Min An from Pexels 

Another downside is that the lower effectiveness of organic fertilizers causes the eutrophication and acidification potentials(refer to the graph below for an explanation of these terms) of organic farms to be higher than conventional farms. Since organic fertilizers are not timed to release nutrients when plants require them, they may produce nutrients when the plant doesn't need them. These excess nutrients are more likely to be washed out of soils and into bodies of water, causing eutrophication and acidification..
And you know what? Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from organic agriculture aren't that much different from the levels produced by conventional agriculture. This is because manure produces a lot of nitrous oxide a potent GHG, so you might not really be helping the battle against climate change by simply buying organic food. The graph below by Clark & Tilman (2017) shows the ratios of some environmental impacts of organic to conventional agriculture.

Graph showing the environmental impacts of organic farming relative to conventional farming. Photo by https://tinyurl.com/yap6pzha 

To top it all off, Wilcox, C. (2011) has reported that organic food is not necessarily more nutritious than conventional food (although it may have less chemicals from pesticides on it), nor is it superior in taste.

Now, don’t get me wrong; organic farming isn’t all bad. In fact, conventional practices require more energy than their organic counterparts, and their increased pesticide levels may have negative impacts on human health. But, organic isn't as beneficial as you think. Clark & Tilman note that a key solution to environmental problems caused by agriculture is to develop

"production systems that integrate the benefits of conventional, organic and other agricultural systems is necessary for creating a more sustainable agricultural future."

More importantly, they’ve found that “increasing agricultural input efficiency (the amount of food produced per input of fertilizer or feed) would have environmental benefits for both crop and livestock systems.” 

But the thing is, it’s not necessarily where your food comes from, it’s really what you eat. Clark & Tilman conclude that reducing your meat intake can have great benefits on the environment, as previous posts have discussed. I think that eating maybe one vegetarian meal a week is a great step towards helping the environment. You don’t have to spend all your money buying special organic products that are expensive and sometimes hard to find locally. 

We in Trinidad & Tobago, a small island vunerable to the impacts of climate change, and whose water supplies are already being degraded by agriculture [4], need to start thinking of ways to reduce our environmental footprint. A fundamental, yet impactful way to do this is simply to change how you eat! So, what do you think? Are you going to think about your foodprint the next time you grab a plate?

Photo by Edward Eyer from Pexels

References

1.        Clark, M. & Tilman, D. (2017). Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice. Environmental Research Letters, 12(6), 064016.  doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa6cd5 

2.        Ritchie, H. (2017). Is organic really better for the environment than conventional agriculture? Our World In Data. Retrieved October 27, 2019 from https://ourworldindata.org/is-organic-agriculture-better-for-the-environment 

3.      Wilcox, C. (2011). Mythbusting 101: Organic agriculture>conventional agriculture. Scientific American. Retrieved October 27, 2019 from https://tinyurl.com/jzsc9w5 

4.     Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2016). AQUASTAT website. Retrieved November 8, 2019 from http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/TTO/