📝 New article on Our World in Data: Is organic farming better for the environment than conventional farming?
One of the most common questions we’re asked about food systems is whether organic farming is better for the environment than conventional methods. We wrote about this many years ago, but wanted to revisit this question and answer it based on the most recent available studies.
The very clear takeaway is that there is no clear-cut winner. Organic farming tends to perform better on ecotoxicity metrics and can support more biodiversity on a given farm. Conventional farming consistently wins in land use; it achieves higher yields, so it requires less land to grow a given amount of food.
On impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution, organic farming tends to win per hectare. But because it achieves lower yields, this benefit disappears when we compare it per kilogram of food. When it comes to carbon emissions, there is no obvious winner.
The largest differences we see are between different types of foods. The environmental impacts of beef or pork, for example, are far higher than those of plant-based foods, regardless of whether they’re organic or conventionally farmed.
The key limiting factor for organic farming is land use. A future with more organic farming and less agricultural land than today would only be possible with larger shifts toward more plant-based, less land-hungry diets.
JPMorgan hat gerade einen furchterregenden Chart zu den Ölbeständen der Welt veröffentlicht. Die Lagerbestände befinden sich im freien Fall. Und wenn diese Linie 6,8 — erreicht, fällt die Weltwirtschaft nicht in eine Rezession. Sie kollabiert. (MO)
The easiest mistake to make when looking at this chart is to think that semiconductors have “contributed” most of the S&P 500’s gains. In reality, the chart simply divides the year’s trading days into two groups based on whether semiconductor stocks rose or fell that day. Multiply the +59% and -30% return paths together, and you get roughly the S&P 500’s actual year-to-date gain of about 12%.
What the chart does show is that semiconductors have become a highly sensitive gauge of risk appetite in the U.S. stock market in 2026. But it still does not prove that the broader market can only rise when chip stocks do. One important piece of supporting evidence is that the equal-weighted S&P 500 has, at times this year, outperformed the market-cap-weighted index. If chip stocks weaken from here while the broader market continues to advance, then the strong synchronization shown in this chart would be better understood as broad market co-movement rather than a single industry controlling the entire index.
Should humanity stay entirely on this planet or attempt to colonise the solar system? Should we move our industries into space (more than we have already)?
We answer these questions as a civilisation through our actions, whether or not we want to or not. And through this we determine our future.
Do we want the future to look more like Star Trek or more like Children of Men?
Now is a crucial time to decide.
Read more: https://t.co/B1OlPKLwvx