Organic food producers, which eschew synthetic pesticides for "natural" ones, regularly market their products as more sustainable than conventional offerings, but they're not.
An analysis of 71 studies by Oxford University researchers revealed that organic milk, cereals, and pork generated higher greenhouse gas emissions per product. A more damning study published in 2018 found that organic peas farmed in Sweden have a 50% larger impact on climate change than conventional peas. Organically-farmed winter wheat is even worse – it's almost 70% more intensive. Driving these differences is that fact that organic farming has lower yields for almost every crop type. When it comes to the foods that provide the bulk of humanity's calories – corn, wheat, and most vegetables – yields with conventional agriculture are more than 25% higher. Put simply, there's not currently enough arable land to feed the world with organic food. Either millions – or even billions – would starve or more rainforest would need to be chopped down to clear land for agriculture. Neither option sounds very sustainable.
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