Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice - a massive 2017 study, which is also included in a collection of other research here:
“Is organic really better for the environment?”
The general conclusion right now is basically “it depends,” but it depends on the produce we’re looking at as well as the type of environmental harm:
If this chart is a little obtuse to read, here’s a breakdown:
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: organically grown meat and dairy is better for the environment in terms of greenhouse gases. For all other foods, there isn’t a big difference.
LAND USE: all organic foods are worse here, using much more land.
ENTROPHICATION: all organic food is STAGGERINGLY worse here, HOLY SHIT.
ACIDIFICATION: all organic food is worse, once again.
ENERGY USE: organically grown cereals are worse, all other organic foods roughly the same or better at overall energy use.
There isn’t a category here for pesticides, but it’s important to know that “organic farming” DOES NOT AND HAS NEVER MEANT PESTICIDE-FREE. Apparently over 95% of people who choose organic food say they do so because they don’t want to be eating pesticides. That’s pretty fucking alarming, because organic crops are pretty much equally likely to be sprayed with something to kill weeds, insects or both, and just because those pesticides are certified organic in origin doesn’t mean they’re harmless to humans or to the environment. There’s more about that in this article.
Anyway, the biggest failure of organic foods is that “entrophication” thing, which most people have never even heard of. It refers largely to fertilizer and organic waste runoff, i.e. “extra food” dumped into the environment, which SOUNDS better to the average person than most forms of pollution, but is in fact absolutely devastating to entire ecosystems.
Nutrient pollution means food for microorganisms first and that is what causes population explosions of bacteria, fungi and toxic algae. This can kill off every single living thing in a given environment, like the “red tide” blooms that recently ravaged Florida.
Overall, organic farming is a mess of poorly understood advantages and disadvantages in different areas.
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