There are more and more studies that suggest that organic foods are not healthier than conventional ones, in fact it is usually just the opposite. They also don’t seem to be more sustainable , as another new study published in Nature suggests.
According to the study, there is little difference in greenhouse gas emissions from conventional and organically grown meat production. They also found that organically farmed chickens produced slightly more emissions than conventionally farmed chickens.
Less efficiency
The study took into account the emissions produced during the different stages of the production process: emissions produced during the cultivation and processing of food and fertilizers, for example, and the methane released by animals and their manure.
It turned out that emissions reductions from organically farmed animals (in which no fertilizer is used to produce food) were often offset by increases in methane release due to slower growth rates and the need to raise more animals, since that organically fed animals tend to produce less meat .
The reason organic food is so much worse for the climate is that the yields per hectare are much lower, mainly because no fertilizers are used. To produce the same amount of organic food, then, a much larger area of land is required.
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