For Germany and the EU, boosting organic farming is a political priority and both have set targets for 2030: The EU aims for 25% of arable land farmed organically by then, according to its food flagship policy, the Farm to Fork Strategy, while Germany went beyond this and set a 30% goal.

If this target is reached, as much as €4 billion of environmental and climate costs caused by nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions could be saved, according to a long-term study supported by the German agriculture ministry and published recently by researchers from Munich Technical University.

However, this rosy picture comes with an important caveat: Organic agriculture still produces significantly less food per area – that is, lower yields – than its conventional counterpart.

“Organic farming offers many advantages: from stable prices to reduced nutrient and active ingredient inputs into the environment. But the study clearly shows that organic farming requires almost twice as much land per unit of grain as conventional farming,” explained Peter Breunig, a professor at Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences.

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“In Germany and the EU, we already need more land for agriculture than is available,” he stressed. “Every increase in land demand, whether on the supply or demand side, increases the global pressure on natural areas with consequences for the climate and biodiversity.”

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