Dalhousie Research Shows Environmental Benefits of Organic Farming

Researchers at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Management have published research findings that demonstrate that large scale environmental benefits can be achieved by a wholesale conversion of Canadian corn, wheat, soy and canola production to organic farming methods.

“We estimate that such a conversion would result in a 4.8 million tonne reduction in total green house gas emissions annually,” said Nathan Pelletier, lead researcher and Ph.D. student in the Faculty’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies, who added that “such a potential reduction is incredibly important given the enormous toll that climate change is likely to have on human societies and ecosystems.” Mr. Pelletier, along with Professor Peter Tyedmers and Nicole Arsenault, has authored a paper titled “Scenario Modeling Potential Eco-Efficiency Gains from a Transition to Organic Agriculture: Life Cycle Perspectives on Canadian Canola, Corn, Soy, and Wheat Production” to be published in the journal Environmental Management by Springer Science+Business Media.

The study modeled the potential reductions in cumulative energy demand (both fossil and renewable) and global warming, acidifying, and ozone-depleting emissions associated with a hypothetical national transition from conventional to organic production of four major field crops (canola, corn, soy, and wheat) in Canada. Their results indicate that a wholesale transition to organic crop production would consume 39% as much energy and generate 77% of the global warming emissions, 17% of the ozone-depleting emissions and 96% of the acidifying emissions associated with current national production of these crops. These differences were almost exclusively due to the differences in fertilizers used in conventional and organic farming and were most strongly influenced by the higher cumulative energy demand and emissions associated with producing conventional nitrogen fertilizers compared to the green manure production used for biological nitrogen fixation in organic agriculture. Overall, they estimate that a total transition to organic production of these crops in Canada would reduce national energy consumption by 0.8%, global warming emissions by 0.6%, and acidifying emissions by 1.0% but have a negligible influence on reducing ozone-depleting emissions.

“The benefits of organic agriculture, in terms of reducing impacts on biodiversity and lowering human exposure to a wide range of known toxins, is well established. However, our work demonstrates the substantial potential benefits to be enjoyed nationally and globally as a result of a wholesale conversion of Canadian field crop agriculture,” said Professor Tyedmers.

Conventional canola, corn, soy, and wheat together accounted for 75% of both seeded area and production for all field crops (excluding hay) produced in Canada in 2005 and occupied 24.2 million hectares of the Canadian agricultural landscape.


The above press release was issued by Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 and is posted here with permission.

See Abstract of scientific paper


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Posted November 2008