Sustainability of organic meat production under Swedish conditions

Abstract

World meat consumption has increased considerably during recent decades at the same time as questions about the sustainability of livestock systems. The aim of the paper is to investigate whether organic meat production can be more sustainable than conventional meat production. Organic meat production is supposed to use ecological resources, such as natural grasslands and by-products with low alternative value together with fodder that is grown without artificial fertilisers and pesticides. The organic animals are given the possibility of more natural behaviour, for example, they stay outdoors all year in nature and use simple buildings. For organic meat production to expand in a sustainable way, consumers must perceive it as at least as good as conventional production regarding environmental quality and price. Therefore, possible future organic and conventional meat production are compared regarding production costs, land requirements, soil conservation, nature conservation, energy needs, and chemical requirements as well as the discharge of nitrogen and greenhouse gases. The results suggest that organic production can be more sustainable than conventional production for beef and lamb, but not for pork. Organic beef and lamb production has advantages compared with conventional pig production regarding soil conservation, nature conservation and independence of chemicals. However, the production costs and discharge of nitrogen and greenhouse gases per kilo of meat are larger than in conventional pork production. Organic production also needs more land, which limits its sustainability if land for food production and energy crops is scarce. When food is scarce, organic meat production should aim to use land and by-products that cannot be used in any other way for food production.