Organic Food - Environmental Impact

Environmental Impact

Several surveys and studies have attempted to examine and compare conventional and organic systems of farming. Organic farms do not consume or release synthetic pesticides into the environment although organic pesticides are as damaging to the environment as synthetic pesticides. Pesticides have the potential to harm soil, water and local terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. The general consensus across these surveys is that organic farming is less damaging for the following reasons:

• Organic farms are better than conventional farms at sustaining diverse ecosystems, i.e., populations of plants and insects, as well as animals.
• When calculated per unit area, organic farms use less energy and produce less waste, e.g., waste such as packaging materials for chemicals.

A 2003 investigation by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in the UK found, similar to other reports, that organic farming "can produce positive environmental benefits", but that some of the benefits were decreased or lost when comparisons are made on "the basis of unit production rather than area".

The situation was shown dramatically in a comparison of a modern dairy farm in Wisconsin with one in New Zealand in which the animals grazed extensively. Using total farm emissions per kg milk produced as a parameter, the researchers showed that production of methane from belching was higher in the New Zealand farm, while carbon dioxide production was higher in the Wisconsin farm. Output of nitrous oxide, a gas with an estimated global warming potential 310 times that of carbon dioxide was also higher in the New Zealand farm. Methane from manure handling was similar in the two types of farm. The explanation for the finding relates to the different diets used on these farms, being based more completely on forage (and hence more fibrous) in New Zealand and containing less concentrate than in Wisconsin. Fibrous diets promote a higher proportion of acetate in the gut of ruminant animals, resulting in a higher production of methane that has to be released by belching. When cattle are given a diet containing some concentrates (such as corn and soybean meal) in addition to grass and silage, the pattern of ruminal fermentation alters from acetate to mainly propionate. As a result methane production is reduced. Capper et al. compared the environmental impact of US dairy production in 1944 and 2007. They calculated that the carbon “footprint” per billion kg of milk produced in 2007 was 37 percent that of equivalent milk production in 1944.

The environmental impact of pesticides as well as the impact to the health of farm workers are reasons given for purchasing organic food.

However, critics of organic farming methods believe that the increased land needed to farm organic food could potentially destroy the rainforests and wipe out many ecosystems.