Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

Faculty of Agriculture

Greenhouse Gases, Carbon and Climate Change in Organic Agriculture

Practical Resources

Can Organic Crop Production be an N₂O Mitigation Strategy?
- Natural Systems Agriculture. 2016
Carbon and Global Warming Potential Footprint of Organic Farming [PDF - 469 kB]
- Report to the Organic Value Chain Round Table. 2010
Changing Agriculture in a Changing Climate
- Organic Eprints. 2012
Climate change meets resilience: Real farmers solving real climate problems with sustainable solutions
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 2013
The Contribution of Organic Agriculture to Climate Change Mitigation [PDF - 1.8 MB]
- IFOAM. 2009
Cool Science for a Cool Planet: Breakthrough study shows organic cuts agriculture’s contribution to climate change
- The Organic Center (USA). 2017
Environmental Benefits of Organic Agriculture: Energy and Climate Change
- Recorded webinar series by the Science and Technology Library of USDA. 2015
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Soil Quality in Long-term Integrated and Transitional Reduced Tillage Organic Systems - Two-Part Webinar Series
- eOrganic. 2014
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Organic Crop Management [PDF - 340 kB]
- OACC. 2008
Greenhouse Gases and Agriculture: Where does Organic Farming Fit? Recorded Webinar
- eOrganic. 2012
Impact of Organic Grain Farming Methods on Climate Change Recorded Webinar
- eOrganic. 2013
New Times, New Tools: Cultivating Climate Resilience on Your Organic Farm Recorded Webinar
- eOrganic. 2016
Organic Agriculture and Climate Change Mitigation: A Report of the Round Table on Organic Agriculture and Climate Change [PDF - 1.3 MB]
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2011
Organic Farming and Climate Change
- FiBL. 2007
Organic Farming for Health & Prosperity
- Organic Farming Research Foundation. 2012
Organic Farming, Climate Change Mitigation and Beyond: Reducing the Environmental Impacts of EU Agriculture [PDF – 1.9 MB]
- IFOAM and FiBL. 2017
Performance of Organic Treatments in Long-Term Systems Trials: Organic Benefits and Challenges In the Face of Climate Change Recorded Webinar
- eOrganic. 2013
Reducing Global Warming and Adapting to Climate Change: The Potential of Organic Agriculture
- FiBL. 2012
Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change [PDF - 653 kB]
- Rodale Institute. 2014
Soil carbon sequestration in Switzerland - the DOK trial
- Organic Eprints. 2010
The State of Food and Agriculture: Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security [PDF - 6.1 MB]
- FAO. 2016
Trade and Environment Review 2013 – Wake Up Before It Is Too Late – Make Agriculture Truly Sustainable Now for Food Security in a Changing Climate [PDF - 5.2 MB]
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 2013
Transport is important in the carbon footprint of imported organic plant products
- Organic Eprints. 2011

Scientific Results

Agroecology and the design of climate change-resilient farming systems
- Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2015) 35: 869-890
The Carbon and Global Warming Potential Impacts of Organic Farming: Does It Have a Significant Role in an Energy Constrained World?
- Sustainability (2011) 32: 322-362
Carbon footprints and land use of conventional and organic diets in Germany
- Journal of Cleaner Production (2017) 161: 127-142
Carbon footprints of crops from organic and conventional arable crop rotations – using a life cycle assessment approach
- Journal of Cleaner Production (2014) 64: 609-618
Climate change, agricultural inputs, cropping diversity, and environmental covariates in multivariate analysis of future wheat, barley, and canola yields in Canadian Prairies: a case study
- Canadian Journal of Soil Science (2017) 97:300-318
Comparing global warming potential, energy use and land use of organic, conventional and integrated winter wheat production
- Annals of Applied Biology (2012) 161: 116-126
Comparison of Twelve Organic and Conventional Farming Systems: A Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Perspective
- Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (2012) 36: 620-649
The contribution to climate change of the organic versus conventional wheat farming: A case study on the carbon footprint of wholemeal bread production in Italy
- Journal of Cleaner Production (2017) 153: 309-319
Decisions to reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture and product transport: LCA case study of organic and conventional wheat
- Journal of Cleaner Production (2009) 17: 222-230
Effects of contrasting catch crops on nitrogen availability and nitrous oxide emissions in an organic cropping system
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2015) 199: 382-393
Effects of grass-clover management and cover crops on nitrogen cycling and nitrous oxide emissions in a stockless organic crop rotation
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2013) 181: 115-126
Emissions of nitrous oxide from arable organic and conventional cropping systems on two soil types
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2010) 136: 199-208
The energy efficiency of organic agriculture: A review
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2015) 30: 280-301
Energy self-reliance, net-energy production and GHG emissions in Danish organic cash crop farms
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2008) 23: 30–37
Energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in organic and conventional grain crop production: Accounting for nutrient inflows
- Agricultural Systems (2018) 162:89-96
Environmental Correlates with Germinable Weed Seedbanks on Organic Farms Across Northern New England
- Weed Science (2018) 66:78-94
Evaluation of the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model on predicting crop yield in the Canadian Prairies: a case study
- Canadian Journal of Soil Science (2017) 97:692-702
The Food System and Climate Change: An Exploration of Emerging Strategies to Reduce GHG Emissions in Canada
- Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (2013) 37: 933-963
Greater Mitigation of Climate Change by Organic than Conventional Agriculture: A Review
- Biological Agriculture & Horticulture (2011) 27: 205-229
Greenhouse gas emissions from conventional and organic cropping systems in Spain. I. Herbaceous crops
- Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2015) 35: 713-724
Greenhouse gas emissions from conventional and organic cropping systems in Spain. II. Fruit tree orchards
- Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2015) 35: 725-737
Greenhouse gas emissions from selected Austrian dairy production systems—model calculations considering the effects of land use change
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2010) 25: 316-329
Greenhouse gas fluxes from agricultural soils under organic and non-organic management — A global meta-analysis
- Science of the Total Environment (2014) 468-469: 553-563
Greenhouse gases and ammonia emissions from organic mixed crop-dairy systems: a critical review of mitigation options
- Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2010) 30: 215-236
Identifying hotspots in the carbon footprint of a small scale organic vegetable farm
- Agricultural Systems (2016) 149: 112-121
Impact of cover cropping and landscape positions on nitrous oxide emissions in northeastern US agroecosystems
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2017) 245: 124-134
Impact of organic pig production systems on CO₂ emission, C sequestration and nitrate pollution
- Agronomy for Sustainable Development (2010) 30: 721-731
Impact of reduced tillage on greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon stocks in an organic grass-clover ley - winter wheat cropping sequence
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2017) 239: 324-333
Improving Energy Efficiency and GHG Mitigation Potentials in Canadian Organic Farming Systems
- Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (2010) 34: 549-580
Increasing the adaptive capacity of organic farming systems in the face of climate change using action research methods
- Organic Agriculture (2016) 6: 139-151
Influence of cropping systems on greenhouse gas emissions
- Organic Eprints. 2011
Interactive life cycle assessment framework to evaluate agricultural impacts and benchmark emission reduction credits from organic management
- Journal of Cleaner Production (2016) 115: 182-190
Legume-based cropping systems have reduced carbon and nitrogen losses
- Nature (1998) 396: 262-265
Life Cycle Energy and Greenhouse Gas Analysis of a Large-Scale Vertically Integrated Organic Dairy in the United States
- Environmental Science & Technology (2011) 45: 1903-1910
Long-term effects of cropping system on N₂O emission potential
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry (2013) 57: 706-712
Management effects on net ecosystem carbon and GHG budgets at European crop sites
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2010) 139: 363-383
Managing soil carbon for climate change mitigation and adaptation in Mediterranean cropping systems: A meta-analysis
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2013) 168: 25-36
Modelling greenhouse gas emissions from European conventional and organic dairy farms
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2006) 112: 207-220
Modelling uncertainty for nitrate leaching and nitrous oxide emissions based on a Swedish field experiment with organic crop rotation
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2011) 141: 167-183
The Myth of Nitrogen Fertilization for Soil Carbon Sequestration
- Journal of Environmental Quality (2007) 36: 1821-1832
Nitrogen flows on organic and conventional dairy farms: a comparison of three indicators
- Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems (2018) 110:25-38
Nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching in an organic and a conventional cropping system (Seine basin, France)
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2015) 213: 131-141
Nitrous oxide emissions from organic and conventional crop rotations in five European countries
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2006) 112: 200-206
Organic agriculture and climate change
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2010) 25: 158-169
The potential of organic agriculture for contributing to climate change adaptation
- Organic Eprints. 2014
Profitability of organic and conventional soybean production under ‘green payments’ in carbon offset programs
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2012) 27: 266-277
Quantifying the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of composting dairy and beef cattle manure
- Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems (2005) 72:173–187
Relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and cultivable bacterial populations in conventional, organic and long-term grass plots as affected by environmental variables and disturbances

Soil Biology and Biochemistry (2017) 114: 145-149
Seasonal nitrous oxide emissions from field soils under reduced tillage, compost application or organic farming
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2014) 189: 171-180
Short-term dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions and cultivable bacterial populations in response to induced and natural disturbances in organically and conventionally managed soils

Applied Soil Ecology (2017) 119: 294-306
Simulating greenhouse gas budgets of four California cropping systems under conventional and alternative management
- Ecological Applications (2010) 20: 1805-1819
Soil organic matter, greenhouse gases and net global warming potential of irrigated conventional, reduced-tillage and organic cropping systems
- Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems (2017) 107: 49-62
Soil properties, crop production and greenhouse gas emissions from organic and inorganic fertilizer-based arable cropping systems
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2010) 139: 584-594
Use of laboratory incubation techniques to estimate greenhouse gas footprints from conventional and no-tillage organic agroecosystems
- Soil Biology and Biochemistry (2017) 112: 204-215

For more information about Organic Science Cluster research on the organic agriculture and climate change, please see the following Research Activities:

Faculty of Agriculture
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Truro, NS, B2N 5E3
1.902.893.6600

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