Energy and environmental issues in organic and conventional agriculture

Humanity is facing possibly the greatest challenge in its history. Population is expected to reach 9 billion in 2030. At the same time agricultural land is becoming scarcer and poorer in quality. Furthermore, the environmental impact of intensive agriculture and the effects of climate change are threatening food security in many regions of the globe. Further, shortage of fossil fuels will have dramatic effects on the performance of intensive agriculture. There is an urge to develop more ecological agricultural practices both to meet the need to preserve agroecosystems health and to deal with the reduced availability of “cheap” energy from fossil fuels. This paper reviews a number of studies comparing the performances of conventional and organic agriculture in light of energy use, CO2 emission and other environmental issues. Organic agriculture, along with other low input agriculture practices, results in less energy demand compared to intensive agriculture and could represent a means to improve energy savings and CO2 abatement if adopted on a large scale. At the same time it can provide a number of important environmental and social services, such as preserving and improving soil quality, increasing carbon sink, minimizing water use, preserving biodiversity, halting the use of harmful chemicals, thereby guaranteeing healthy food to consumers. We claim that more work should be done in terms of research and investment to explore the potential of organic farming for reducing environmental impact of agricultural practices. However, in the case of organic agriculture, the implications of a reduced productivity for the socioeconomic system should be considered and suitable agricultural policies worked out.