Organic agriculture: a brief defense. A discussion of the environmental problems posed by organic agriculture.

There have been a series of negative reports about the environmental impact of organic farming.

Critics say organic farming is inefficient because it takes up more land and leads to more deforestation, increasing carbon dioxide emissions and biodiversity loss.

However, this position may be overly simplistic, as it relates environmental impacts only to the amount harvested from a given piece of land. In this sense, intensive agriculture is more efficient because it produces more agricultural products.

However, this assessment does not take into account land degradation, biodiversity decline, and the impact of pesticides caused by agriculture.

It may be argued that land saved by conventional agriculture can be set aside for carbon sequestration and improved biodiversity, but the relationship between intensive agriculture and reduced deforestation is marginal at best.

For example, deforestation in Brazil coincides with increased agricultural effort.

Also of concern is the increased use of pesticides due to increased cultivation, which has increased by at least 70% since the early 1990s. There is no need to go into detail about the negative effects of pesticides on the environment.

Analyses typically only consider the relationship between agricultural yield and land use, often ignoring the avoidance of synthetic pesticides and growth supplements.

Therefore, it is misleading to simply claim that organic farming has the worst environmental impact.

Nevertheless, healthy eating is especially tricky given the oversaturation of dietary fads. While organic food is not magic, its benefits include (but are not limited to): it contains fewer chemical pesticides, is fresher, is more likely to be rich in certain nutrients, is not genetically modified, and its consumption has unpredictable effects on human physiology.

With this in mind, those who prescribe the benefits of eating organically can continue to do so with a clear conscience, without worrying about highly controversial claims about the negative impact of organic farming on the environment.