Organic is only one ingredient in recipe for sustainable food future
Many shades of gray: The context-dependent performance of organic agriculture
- Date:
- March 10, 2017
- Source:
- University of British Columbia
- Summary:
- Many people choose organic thinking it’s better for humans and the planet, but a new study finds that might not always be the case.
“Organic is often proposed a holy grail solution to current environmental and food scarcity problems, but we found that the costs and benefits will vary heavily depending on the context,” said Verena Seufert, a researcher at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES).
In their study, Seufert and her co-author Navin Ramankutty, Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change and Food Security at UBC, analyzed organic crop farming across 17 criteria such as yield, impact on climate change, farmer livelihood and consumer health.
It is the first study to systematically review the scientific literature on the environmental and socioeconomic performance of organic farming, not only assessing where previous studies agree and disagree, but also identifying the conditions leading to good or bad performance of organic agriculture. [Explore their findings in-depth in the image]
Read the full article: Science Daily
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