GLP podcast: Organic farming—solution to climate change or path to world hunger?

Here’s some good news to break up the cacophony of alarmist environmental headlines you read weekly: global agricultural output has increased roughly four-fold since 1974, a massive acceleration in food production that has left more than three billion hectares of land untouched by farmers. These developments have occurred despite the detrimental impacts of climate change, and they confirm that human ingenuity and technological progress are helping us sustainably feed ourselves while preserving the planet’s natural resources.

If the world sees significant increases in hunger in the coming years, it won’t be driven by global warming but “bad science communication and fear mongering.” That’s the thesis of a provocative but science-based analysis by Breakthrough Institute scholar Alex Smith. We know how to continue enhancing sustainable food production, Smith argues, but that fact might prove irrelevant if a cohort of “activist researchers,” “long-standing critics of industrial food production” and journalists get their way.

These voices advocate for a mass transition to regenerative agriculture–the latest marketing term for organic farming–in the name of slowing climate change. But with a yield penalty somewhere around 20 percent, so-called regenerative farming simply can’t produce all the calories we need to feed 10 billion people.  That task must be left to high-efficiency conventional agriculture.

Why does widespread support for organic farming persist despite its well-documented limitations? Join hosts Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 284 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down this critically important story:

• Will Climate Change Starve Us All? No, But Bad Science Communication and Fear Mongering Might

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Dr. Liza Dunn is a medical toxicologist and the medical affairs lead at Bayer Crop Science. Follow her on X @DrLizaMD

Cameron J. English is the director of bio-sciences at the American Council on Science and Health. Visit his website and follow him on X @camjenglish