Organic farming matters -
just not in the way you think
Looks good, tastes good, but can it feed the world?
I
Verena Seufert, Postdoctoral fellow,
Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia
Navin Ramankutty, Professor,
University of British Columbia
s organic agriculture the solution to our
global food system challenges? That’s been
the premise and promise of the organic
movement since its origins in the 1920s:
farming that’s healthy, ecological, and socially
just.
Many people – from consumers and farmers
to scientists and international organisations –
believe that organic agriculture can produce
enough nutritious food to feed the world
without destroying the environment, while
being more resilient to climate change and
improving the livelihoods of farmers.
But as with many important issues of our time,
there are more passionate opinions about
organic agriculture than there is scientific
evidence to support them. And there’s nothing
black or white about organic agriculture.
For a paper published today in the journal
Science Advances, we systematically and
rigorously evaluated the performance of
organic versus conventional agriculture on
three key fronts – environmental impact,
producer and consumer benefits. As much
as possible, we based our review on previous
quantitative synthesis of the scientific
Organic wins on some fronts and loses on others. Author provided
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