Study shows growing food organically has higher impact on климат because of more land use
органичен food has become very popular in the last decade as consumers are becoming more aware and health and quality conscious. органичен food is produced naturally from органично фермерство which aims to increase the naturalness of food by minimizing chemical interference when producing it. So, органичен food does not include any pesticides, synthetic fertilizers or other artificial additives. The produce of meat, eggs and other products from animals, is termed органичен if animals were not subjected to any antibiotics or growth hormone supplements. Every food item produced organically is also more expensive than conventional food because without use of chemicals or additives, it takes longer time to produce органичен food and thus requires more resources in terms of land, time etc. The demand for органични храни is certainly higher and rapidly growing compared to the supply which is further contributing to high prices of органичен храна.
Conventional farming vs органичен земеделие
Изследователи от Технологичния университет Чалмърс, Швеция, разработиха нова методология за анализ на въздействието на органично фермерство on климат via the factor of land-use by comparing conventional food production in agriculture with органичен production. Their study showed that producing органичен food contributed to higher emissions into the заобикаляща среда, Например, органичен peas farmed in Sweden had almost 50 percent higher impact on климат while for other foods like Swedish winter wheat this number was as high as 70 percent. This is attributed to two reasons; first, to the more land required for органичен farming and second, since fertilizers are not used in органичен farming the yields per hectare is considerably reduced. For every single food product, be it organic meat or dairy product the land required is much more for organic production compared to conventional земеделие. This greater land use automatically leads to higher carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions because for every land which needs to be cultivated, forests are converted by cutting trees leading to deforestation. Deforestation accounts for 15 percent of total greenhouse emissions on our планета. Simply put, felling of trees is doing an irreversible damage to the environment and to the ecosystem (flora and fauna).
„Въглеродна възможна цена“
В тяхното проучване, публикувано в природа изследователите са използвали нов показател, наречен „Въглеродна алтернативна цена“, за първи път, който оценява въглеродния отпечатък чрез ефектите от по-високото използване на земята и как той е допринесъл за емисиите на CO2 от обезлесяването. И така, емисиите на CO2 бяха начертани спрямо общия добив на храна, в който съотношението на органичната храна определено изостава. Взето е предвид количеството въглерод, съхраняван в горите и в резултат на обезлесяването се отделя CO2 в атмосферата. Изненадващо, факторът за използване на земята и неговият ефект върху емисиите на CO2 никога не са били анализирани преди в нито едно предишно проучване, може би поради липсата на ясни и лесно приложими методи. Новият показател „Въглеродна алтернативна цена“ позволява просто, но подробно сравнение. Статистиката за общото производство в страната и общите добиви от хектар за биологично и конвенционално земеделие е предоставена от Шведския съвет по земеделие.
органичен земеделие never uses artificial fertilizers as the crops are nourished and nurtured through nutrients naturally present in the soil and if needed only natural pesticides are used. The flipside is that valuable resources like land, water and energy consumed are much higher in organic farming and its relevant to understand how it can be made sustainable over a period of time. According to this study consuming organically produced beans or chicken is better for the климат then let’s say conventionally produced beef. And eating pork, chicken, fish or eggs will have lower impact on environment than say eating beef or lamb.
However, this study does have limitations – as it was restricted to a few crops and in only one region of a country. So, the recommendation is not to stop consuming organic food altogether. But it is clear, where impact on климат is concerned, organic food fares worse than conventional food because of the земеделие methods. There is still lack of substantial scientific evidence to show that organic food is more health friendly or even environment friendly than conventionally farmed food. So even if one assumes organic food is better for people, it may not be so good for the планета! More data is certainly needed to arrive to generalized conclusions. The analysis in this study could also be correlated to biofuels as their production also needs larger land area compared to conventional fuels.
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Източник (и)
Searchinger TD et al. 2018. Assessing the efficiency of changes in land use for mitigating климат се променят. природа. 564 (7735).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0757-z
