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"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." Organic plant-based agriculture is the best option for climate, environment, and the health of farm workers. bsky.app/profile/xoii...

Where would they get fertilizer though

That's not even the biggest problem, though it's absolutely true that most organic fertilizers today are only viable because so little is used, and there's not nearly enough total for a mass switch. The biggest problem is because organic uses so much more land, it causes net *worse* emissions.

Divert "organic waste (OW) from landfills, reducing the production of methane and other GHG emissions. OW is defined as the combination of food waste and green waste, composed of yard and garden trimmings. Composting transforms it into a nutrient-rich soil supplement." drawdown.org/explorer/inc...

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.