5. Conclusions
The presented method is useful to calculate national energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gasses from both conventional and organic farming. However, the method to scale up energy consumption from an existing farm level model to the national level was only possible to validate for conventional farming. Future work on procedures to estimate consequences of conversion to organic farming on larger scales than the farm is therefore needed.
Results showed that CO2 from agricultural energy consumption is responsible for about 1/4 of the greenhouse gas emissions from both conventional and organic agricultural production. In the scenarios for conversion to organic farming, the N 2 O-emission is particularly reduced, partly because of lower nitrogen losses (Dalgaard et al. 1998). Also for the other two major greenhouse gases, a significant reduction is expected following organic conversion. The net greenhouse gas emission from agriculture may in the future be lowered via increased bio-energy production, and a large unused potential for such bio-energy production is present in conventional agriculture.
In conclusion, conversion to organic farming might help to reduce energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gasses in Denmark, but for policy analysis these reductions must be evaluated also with other criteria for a sustainable future agricultural production.
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Dalgaard, T., Halberg, N., Fenger, J. (2002). Can Organic Farming Help to Reduce National Energy Consumption and Emissions of Greenhouse Gasses in Denmark?. In: van Ierland, E.C., Lansink, A.O. (eds) Economics of Sustainable Energy in Agriculture. Economy & Environment, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48018-2_13
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