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HERO ID
1510898
Reference Type
Journal Article
Title
Does organic farming reduce environmental impacts?--a meta-analysis of European research
Author(s)
Tuomisto, HL; Hodge, ID; Riordan, P; Macdonald, DW
Year
2012
Is Peer Reviewed?
Yes
Journal
Journal of Environmental Management
ISSN:
0301-4797
EISSN:
1095-8630
Volume
112
Page Numbers
309-320
Language
English
PMID
22947228
DOI
10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.08.018
Web of Science Id
WOS:000311188300032
Abstract
Organic farming practices have been promoted as, inter alia, reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. This meta-analysis systematically analyses published studies that compare environmental impacts of organic and conventional farming in Europe. The results show that organic farming practices generally have positive impacts on the environment per unit of area, but not necessarily per product unit. Organic farms tend to have higher soil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses (nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions and ammonia emissions) per unit of field area. However, ammonia emissions, nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions per product unit were higher from organic systems. Organic systems had lower energy requirements, but higher land use, eutrophication potential and acidification potential per product unit. The variation within the results across different studies was wide due to differences in the systems compared and research methods used. The only impacts that were found to differ significantly between the systems were soil organic matter content, nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions per unit of field area, energy use and land use. Most of the studies that compared biodiversity in organic and conventional farming demonstrated lower environmental impacts from organic farming. The key challenges in conventional farming are to improve soil quality (by versatile crop rotations and additions of organic material), recycle nutrients and enhance and protect biodiversity. In organic farming, the main challenges are to improve the nutrient management and increase yields. In order to reduce the environmental impacts of farming in Europe, research efforts and policies should be targeted to developing farming systems that produce high yields with low negative environmental impacts drawing on techniques from both organic and conventional systems.
Keywords
Biodiversity; Greenhouse gas emissions; Nitrogen leaching; Soil organic matter; Life Cycle Assessment
Tags
IRIS
•
Ammonia
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