Determining organic versus conventional food emissions to foster the transition to sustainable food systems and diets: Insights from a systematic review

The global food system is a major contributor to climate change with 23–42% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thus, the transition to sustainable food systems and dietary patterns represents a big challenge and a key solution to feed a fast-growing world population while maintaining safe planet boundaries of sustainability. Organic farming is often proposed as a sustainable option, however a debate is open on its effectiveness in reducing the impact on climate when compared to conventional agriculture. Therefore, there is a need for clear indicators of climate and environmental sustainability to duly inform the food system actors and foster an effective transition towards sustainable food production and consumption. The carbon footprint (CF) is one of the most used indicators to assess the sustainability of food as it measures the contribution to climate change in terms of GHG emissions with different metrics (e.g. GHG per unit of product or per unit of land).