The former chairman of the Food Standards Agency John Krebs has claimed that organic farming could have a more damaging climate change effect than conventional farming.
Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this month, he told delegates: “The fact is organic farming is, in general, less productive per hectare than conventional farming and if we want to produce more organic food we need more land to do it, which releases more carbon into the atmosphere.”
Krebs, who now advises the government on climate change policy, says approaches such as minimum or no tillage are the best way to protect soil and prevent greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere.
But the Soil Association’s policy director, Peter Melchett, has accused the former FSA boss of mounting “an obligatory attack” on organic. Melchett added that Krebs – a “distinguished scientist in his field” – seemed unaware of major new studies which demonstrate that the productivity of organic farming has been substantially underestimated, and that organic methods are more effective of sequestering – capturing and locking in – carbon.
