Media misreading organic food's energy footprint

CLAIMING that organic food isn’t always better for the environment has grabbed some headlines for a report by the Manchester Business School for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the UK.

A clear-headed reading of the report reveals that most organic meat and wheat uses less energy in production and all organic products have lower or no pesticide usage.

However, most media covering this story seem to have latched on to the finding that some of the time, some environmental impacts of some organic foods, are considered higher than is the case for some conventional foods.