Organic farming, food diets, land-use change and greenhouse gas emission: exploring the safe operating space for climate neutral organic farming expansion in the European Union.
Agricultural food production is responsible of roughly one quarter of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Curbing those emissions is key to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives. Organic farming has good potential to achieve low area emission intensity. However, due to its lower yields, concerns have raised that organic farming expansion may drive land-use change and related CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, there is life cycle assessment-based evidence that food diets low in animal-sourced products help alleviate agricultural land requirement and GHG emissions. However, very few studies have considered both leverages together and simulated their consequences for land-use change and related GHG emissions.