Organic Beef Has a Larger Carbon Footprint Than Feedlot Beef

By Claudia Steiner

The beef industry is responsible for one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions from food production, making it a top contributor to the climate crisis. The coveted “certified organic” label implies environmental sustainability for many consumers — but how does organic beef actually impact the environment compared to its traditionally farmed counterpart. A new pre-print study compares the carbon emissions and other environmental consequences of traditional, grain-fed farming with organic, grass-fed beef farming, and reports that organic beef farming emitted nearly twice as much carbon as regular farming but may beat out conventional beef by other metrics.

The research on beef — organic or conventionally farmed — and climate impact is clear. As the global population and demand for food grows, so too will agriculture emissions. Two major reports from the World Resources Institute and the EAT-Lancet Commission found that people living in the Global North will need to consume less beef to curb global greenhouse gas emissions enough to limit the effects of climate change.

The U.S.-Brazilian research team compared organic beef farming, which feeds livestock through pasture grazing and avoids synthetic fertilizers, and conventional beef production, which feeds cattle in confined feedlots. Using 25 years of data from the New Mexico State University Clayton Livestock Research Center and a pre-established farming statistical model, the team simulated annual yields for each type of beef production.

In their preprint, a not-yet-peer reviewed manuscript detailing their study, the authors report that organic beef farming is actually more environmentally harmful than conventional methods in terms of four impacts — carbon emissions, water use, reactive nitrogen loss and fossil fuel use. Their results align with previous comparisons, which illuminate how organic farms, like conventional ones, emit a copious share of world emissions.

The most significant difference between the organic and conventional farming simulations was carbon emissions, where organic beef emitted 95% more than conventional production for every kilogram of live cattle body weight produced. The animal’s body weight is a way of calculating how much meat the farm can produce per animal.

This figure includes emissions from the production of the crops used to feed the animals, the equipment and fuel needed for the farming operation and the animals themselves — enteric methane emissions, or methane belched out by cows and other cud-chewing animals, account for 17% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.