Financial outcomes of organic and conventional farms in Spain (2015–2021). An agroecological perspective

Abstract

Transforming agrifood systems is essential to meeting the Paris Agreement andaddressing environmental challenges. Yet Europe is experiencing a decline in smallfamily farms due to generational replacement issues, while farmer protests haveintensified since 2023 in opposition to EU agri-environmental measures. At the sametime, organic farming is expanding rapidly in Europe and worldwide, but there remains aknowledge gap on whether its financial performance is superior, comparable, or inferiorto conventional farming. This study addresses this gap through a multivariate statisticalanalysis of 62,588 farm-year observations from the Spanish Farm Accountancy DataNetwork between 2015 and 2021. We model several financial performance indicators,both including and excluding subsidies, while using several control variables across fullyorganic, partially organic, conventional, and transitioning farms. Results show that returnon assets, income per family labor, and other indicators were consistently higher orsimilar in fully organic farms compared with conventional ones, with even strongeroutcomes for partially organic farms. At no point did organic farms perform worse. Thesefindings suggest that distinct business models, cost structures, and trading strategies makeorganic farms more resilient and profitable, offering insights for agricultural sciences,policy, and public debate.