Sorry—organic farming is actually worse for climate change



From the tech magazine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Eventually we'll need to produce food in high-rise hydroponic farms. Say I. 

/Snip from MIT Tech:

Organic practices can reduce climate pollution produced directly from farming – which would be fantastic if they didn't also require more land to produce the same amount of food.

Clearing additional grasslands or forests to grow enough food to make up for that difference would release far more greenhouse gas than the practices initially reduce, a new study in Nature Communications finds.

Other recent research has also concluded that organic farming produces more climate pollution than conventional practices when the additional land required is taken into account. In the new paper, researchers at the UK's Cranfield University took a broad look at the question by analyzing what would happen if all of England and Wales shifted entirely to these practices. 

… the switch to 100% organic practices would require 1.5 times more land to make up for the declines, which would add up to nearly five times more land overseas than England and Wales currently rely on for food. That difference is amplified by the fact that the UK's agricultural system produces particularly high yields compared with other parts of the world.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614605/sorryorganic-farming-is-actually-worse-for-climate-change/