The State of Organic Seed in Europe

This booklet will present the information collected through research of the LIVESEED project in order to shed light on the actual situation of organic seed use in Europe. In particular, it will focus on the following questions: 1. How does the farmer know what varieties are available as organic seed? How do organic seed databases work in different EU countries and how could they be improved? 2. How much non-organic seed or planting material is used in EU organic farming? How many derogations are granted in different EU Member States and Switzerland? 3. Which are the factors encouraging or discouraging farmers to use organic seed? Which farm and farmer characteristics influence adoption of organic seed? How can organic plant breeding contribute to 100% organic seed use? 4. How has the organic seed market developed in the last years? According to seed suppliers` perspective, what factors hamper the further development of the organic seed sector? To answer these questions, researchers in the LIVESEED project applied integrated research tools and methodologies: a comparative review of the different databases on organic seed in 28 EU countries; an integrated analysis of national derogation reports to measure the current use of nonorganic seed in Europe; a survey among farmers, to understand their perspective on the use of organic seed; and finally a survey among seed suppliers to evaluate trends in the offer of organic seed on the market. A quantitative model was used to estimate the potential demand for organic seed in Europe on the basis of the data collected

Seed databases boosting organic production

According to the current EU regulation on organic farming the use of organically produced seed and vegetative propagation material (plant reproductive material) is mandatory and a fundamental principle of organic farming itself. Different organic seeds categorisations and databases for organic seeds within the EU are explained and the establishment of an European router database is discussed

How to implement the organic regulation to increase production & use of organic seed. Policy recommendations for national and regional authorities

Contents Introduction Part One - Policy Measures 1.1 Measures to stimulate organic seed production and use 1.1.1 Training 1.1.2 Subsidies 1.1.3 Access to cleaning facilities for organic seed producers 1.1.4 Organic cultivar trials 1.2 Derogation Rules 1.3 National Annex 1.4 Equivalent cultivars 1.5 Vegetative propagating material 1.6 Expert Groups 1.6.1 Role and mandate of Expert Groups Part Two - Organic Seed Databases 2.1 Upload of seed offers on national databases 2.2 Features and operation of national organic seed databases 2.3 EU Router database Part Three - Alternative sources of organic seed 3.1 Traditional cultivars & farm saved seed 3.2 Populations and Organic Heterogeneous Materia

The organic seed regulations framework in Europe – current status and recommendations for future development

Organic agriculture regulations, in particular European regulation EC 889/2008, prescribe the use of organically produced seed. For many cultivated plants, however, organic seed is often not available. This is mainly because investment in organic plant breeding and seed production has been low in the past. To bridge the gap between organic seed supply and demand, national and European regulations define certain circumstances under which organic producers are permitted to use non-organically produced seed. While the organic sector currently depends on these concessions, they also threaten to impede a further increase in the demand for organic seed, thereby potentially restraining present and future investment in organic seed production and plant breeding. We review the current status of the organic seed regulations framework by analysing key issues such as the role of the national derogation regimes, the role of expert groups, databases and seed prices. Key points are that (a) the situation of the organic seed sector has improved over the last few years; however, (b) reporting on organic seed to the EU by different countries needs to be harmonised; (c) the success of the organic seed sector depends critically on the implementation and improvement of national expert groups; and (d) to protect genetic diversity, the use of local varieties and landraces should not be impeded by organic seed regulations

Issues of sustainable food production in Latvia

The article presents main results of the first in Latvia study addressing the issues of the development of Latvia’s sustainable food production. For detailed research two main themes for Latvia’s agri-food sector’s sustainability were chosen: 1) the issues related to further development of the organic farming and processing; where the special attention has been paid to organic milk processing; and obtaining of organic pigmeat and beef in different Latvia’s regions; 2) quality and environment management systems enforcement - mandatory and voluntary and the trends of implementation of the international management standards (ISO 9001, ISO 22000; HACCP DS 3027:2002; ISO 14001). The publications, legal documents and databases of Latvia’s governmental and nongovernmental institutions were used as materials and the qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied for this empirical research. The assessment of present situation and the proposals for further development has been given

Strukturdaten zum ökologischen Landbau: welche Daten stehen zur Verfügung?

Researchers in the field of organic farming often need reliable data about the structure of organic farming. Several databases in Germany provide data concerning this issue. However, most of them have weaknesses regarding methodology, reliability or accessibility. The aim of this study is to give an overview of the most important databases

A literature-based comparison of nutrient and contaminant contents between organic and conventional vegetables and potatoes

Purpose - The increasing demand for organic foods is explained mainly by consumers' concerns about the quality and safety of foods and their perception that organically produced foods are healthier and safer than conventional foods. Based on internationally available concentration data of organic and conventional vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, lettuce and spinach) and potatoes, the paper aims to investigate the scientific validity of nutrition claims as "no vegetable/potato has higher amounts of nutrient X than organic vegetables/potatoes" and "no vegetable/potato has lower amounts of contaminant Y than organic vegetables/potatoes". Design/methodology/approach - Detailed nutrient and contaminant databases were developed for organic and conventional vegetables separately. Non-parametric (Mann-Whitney test) methods were used to detect significant differences between both types of vegetables. A chi-square test was used to compare the incidence of pesticide residues in organic and conventional vegetables. Findings - From a nutritional and toxicological point of view, organic vegetables and potato in general are not significantly better than conventional vegetables and potatoes. For some nutrients and contaminants organic vegetables and potatoes score significantly better but for others they score significantly worse. Therefore, it becomes difficult to justify general claims indicating a surplus value of organic over conventional vegetables and potatoes. More data from controlled paired studies are needed to reconsider the use of claims for these organic plant foods in the future. Research limitations/implications - Only a limited number of studies comparing the nutrient and/or contaminant concentration of organic and conventional vegetables are available ("paired studies"). Additionally, the majority of the studies are of moderate or poor quality. The implication is that more of those paired studies are heavily needed. Another limitation of the study is the fact that most pesticide residue data originated from the USA, the EU and Australia. Originality/value - So far only few studies compared both nutrient and contaminant contents between organic and conventional plant foods. This paper covers therefore an important, not well-explored research sub area

Organic seeds: towards a transparent European market

The use of organic seeds and propagating material is one of the fundamental principles of organic agriculture. This is reflected in current European regulations which stipulate that the use of organically produced plant reproductive material is mandatory if a crop is to be sold as organic produce

Analytic observations of seminar scientific work according toward objectives

Report is Deliverable 9 of 6th FP SSA project “Environmental friendly food production system: requirements for plant breeding and seed production” (ENVIRFOOD) and includes analytic observations of seminar scientific work according toward objectives - organic plant breeding, variety testing, seed production, organic food and feed quality, exposition of organic food products