Traditional farmers tend to disagree with this statement, saying that even 100% organic farming would not stop climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently reported the agricultural industry faced severe difficulties due to an increase in extreme weather, degradation of the ground and expanding deserts.
The fear is that food sources will diminish in the near future. Pierre Tilkin of the Luxembourg farmers' association, Bauerenzentral, said it was important to differentiate between issues, acknowledging that 2018 and 2019 had been difficult years for harvests in some regions. However, he pointed out that the bigger issue affecting Europe was surplus and too much food being thrown away. This was also mentioned in the IPCC report.
According to experts, global warming can only be slowed down through sustainable farming, but it is not sufficient. Changing the agricultural industry and the food supply alone cannot stop climate change.
From a European perspective, greenhouse gases caused by humans must be reduced - the farming industry creates 7% of these greenhouse gases. The largest emitter is industrial energy with 38%. A statistic released by the European Parliament says it is not always clear where the emissions come from. In Luxembourg the statistics are different to Germany, for example, due to the "petrol tourism" and imported energy. On the other hand, agricultural emissions are relatively low in the Grand Duchy.
A separate research study highlighted that Luxembourg's agricultural sector only accounted for 6.6% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2015, of which 74% came from animal husbandry. If the country were to reduce its keeping of animals by a third, this would in turn reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by 168,000 tonnes. This amount in turn corresponds to 1.7% of the country's human-produced greenhouse gas emissions and worldwide, 0.003%. Overall, a small impact.
The consensus is that the European Union alone cannot stop climate change, as the EU only represents 9.9% of emissions. The question remains whether completely organic farming would stop climate change. Tilkin had a pessimistic response, pointing out that if the country only farmed "organic cows", namely cows fed with local products, the emissions resulting from animal husbandry would not change. Tilkin put it into simple words: "Whether or not a cow is fed "organic" produce or non-organic produce, a cow remains a cow."
Consequently, the association remains unconvinced that ecological farming is the solution to climate change.
