Organic agriculture and climate change mitigation - A report of the Round Table on Organic Agriculture and Climate Change

Summary

Summary and next steps
Participants of the workshop were able to draw from their discussions and from the input of guest speakers and synthesize a set of conclusions that can be used to guide future activities concerning LCAs and other activities that seek to identify and quantify the potential contributions of organic agriculture to climate change mitigation.
- LCA is the best tool for measuring GHG emissions related to agricultural products.
- There is a risk of oversimplification when focusing on climate change as a single environmental impact category.
- Farm production and transport (at least for plant products) are important hotspots for agricultural products.
- Studies have shown no remarkable difference in GHG emissions between organic and conventional but, traditionally, soil carbon changes have not been included
– which can have a major impact, especially for plant products.
- The challenges of LCA of organic products – accounting for carbon sequestration and interactions in farming systems, including the environmental costs of manure – need to be addressed.
- Attempts should be made to secure a consistent LCA methodology for agricultural products, including organic products.