Climate dumb farming? A shift to organic farming would increase food imports in the UK, thus increasing net carbon emissions

"In summary, our assessment of the impacts of a 100% conversion to organic farming in England and Wales has revealed that, whilst improvements in resource use efficiency could be obtained, reduced outputs would mean that more imports would be required to maintain food supplies. This major expansion in agricultural cultivation overseas to make up for domestic supply shortfalls would lead to increased GHG emissions from the associated land use changes. Ultimately it is unlikely that there exists any single optimal approach to achieving environmentally sustainable food production. Therefore, context-specific evaluations are required to reveal the extent to which organic systems can contribute, alongside other approaches, to multi-objective and internationally binding sustainability targets."

Smith, L.G., Kirk, G.J.D., Jones, P.J. et al. Thegreenhouse gas impacts of converting food production in England and Wales toorganic methods. Nat Commun 10, 4641 (2019) doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12622-7

(Open Access)