A German study has attempted to answer the question. Meat from conventional farming would cost 146 per cent more, while for organic produce the matter is more complex.
More or less everyone knows the price of a kilogram of meat, a litre of milk, a head of lettuce. Some researchers have, however, asked themselves what the cost of food products would be if their environmental impact had to be taken into account.
The study, conducted by researchers from several universities in Germany and published last December in the journal Nature, calculated the price of food products by including the environmental costs to water, air and soil arising, for example, from the use of fertilisers and pesticides and from greenhouse gas emissions. The foods with the greatest gap between market price and real cost turned out to be animal products (meat from conventional farming would cost 146 per cent more, meat from organic farming 71 per cent more), followed by conventional dairy products with a 91 per cent price supplement, while the lowest impact would be that of organic plant products, which would see a price increase of 6 per cent.
The researchers admitted they had expected a better score for animal products from organic farming, which instead also showed high emission levels (values were similar for beef and lamb in conventional and organic, higher for organic chicken compared with conventional, lower for organic pork). The researchers' conclusion is that, in organic farming, although livestock are fed on grass without the use of pesticides, the animals are raised more slowly in keeping with their natural life cycle, meaning they emit more greenhouse gases over the course of their lives, as well as requiring larger grazing areas.
On this point we asked Federbio president Mariagrazia Mammuccini for a comment. "In organic farms, animals are raised using techniques that respect their physiological and ethological welfare: they have daily access to pastures and open spaces, and their stocking density is limited. Organic agriculture integrates with the cycle of nature, in full respect of the environment and animal health," Mammuccini begins. "Regarding the claim that organic farms require larger grazing areas, we would point out that this type of farming is also suited to areas less suited to intensive agriculture — for example, the Italian Apennines — which would otherwise risk being abandoned, as has happened under the industrial farming model. The latter, being based on maximum output, has favoured intensive farming on more fertile land over farming in hilly and mountainous areas, which the organic method, by contrast, regards as a resource and helps to rebalance."
According to the Federbio president, a comprehensive analysis must consider not only emissions but also the environmental and social benefits of organic farming in terms of recovering marginal land, safeguarding biodiversity, and not forgetting the possibility of using manure to enrich soil fertility. "In organic farms, from a circular economy perspective, animal waste is used to fertilise fields, thereby significantly reducing emissions compared with industrial farming," Mammuccini underlines.
According to the German study's conclusions, a price increase for food that accounts for environmental costs would be useful in steering consumers towards greener choices, but such a move would need to be supported by social compensation measures and government subsidies to ensure everyone has access to sustainable food and to make organic farming more competitive as well.
For the Federbio president, transforming agriculture requires, above all, a change in citizens' eating habits. The model proposed is therefore that of an "organic Mediterranean diet", meaning one based on organic production, with increased consumption of plant foods and reduced meat consumption, bringing substantial benefits for both health and the environment. "Numerous studies — Mammuccini concludes — have shown that, if accompanied by a reduction in the use of animal products, concentrated feed in livestock farming and food waste, the conversion of the entire global agricultural output to organic farming would lead to the creation of a great sustainable system, with enormous benefits for the environment, such as containing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the use of fertilisers and pesticides. And sustainable food security on a global scale would be assured."