Comparative study of environmental impacts of imported organic products and regional conventional products – Geneva's case

Nowadays, the consumer is worried by his health and by the environmental protection. Two interesting groups, among the others, can be distinguished : persons worried of eating organic products and persons who consume regional products. What about imported organic products? And what about local conventional products? Which environmental impacts have they? The objective of the work was to compare products stemming from the organic farming and imported in Geneva with products stemming from the regional conventional agriculture, where the region is Geneva. Studied products are apple, tomato, wheat and egg. The origin of these organic products is New-Zealand, Netherland, Canada and United Kingdom, respectively. Results show that each production process involves specific impacts. A unique conclusion for all fruits, all vegetables, all cereals or all animal products is not possible. However, for the precise cases studied, we can say that for all products results show that the imported organic products lead more environmental impacts than regional conventional products. For tomato and egg, a production improvement could invert the tendency. For apple and wheat, a transport reduction will decrease environmental impacts. These results lead to some interrogations : Is Local agriculture enough to feed its inhabitants? Is conventional agriculture sustainable?