Future research priorities of Organic Agriculture. Policy paper of the IFOAM EU Group

This policy paper presents the main research priorities for organic farming agreed by the IFOAM EU Group. It identifies the main clusters both in a table format and with a more detailed explanation of the individual priorities. The paper was discussed at the board meeting of 13th March 2004, amended by additional input from national farmers’ associations and various research institutes from all EU members, revised with a priorisation exercise at the board meeting of 26th June in Lednice (Czech Rep) and finally was reviewed and approved at the board meeting in Bonn the 3rd September

Agricultura familiar agroecólogia en América Latina en un contexto de cambio climático

Esta publicación ha sido producida por IFOAM y por la Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM, Peru) a través de su proyecto AGROECO, financiado por el Fondo Canadiense de Investigacion en Seguridad Alimentaria Internacional (CIFSRF). Esta publicación ha sido cofinanciada por la Comisión Europea, DG Ambiente. La responsabilidad del contenido es del editor y la Comisión no es responsable por cualquier uso que se le de a la información que contiene. Federación Internacional de Movimientos de Agricultura Orgánica. Se autoriza la reproducción total o parcial siempre y cuando se mencione la fuente

Lifestyle Choices and Societal Behavior Changes as Local Climate Strategy

The Asia-Pacific region is witnessing rapid economic growth. Along with rising incomes, the lifestyles of the large middle class are moving quickly towards a buy-and-discard consumer model that involves carbon-intensive products and services. These increase dependency on the Earth's finite natural resources and simultaneously produces waste, putting a significant strain on the environment. Such lifestyles, coupled with scarce resources and frequent natural hazards associated with climate change, pose serious threats to the future of the planet. Developed countries with high footprint per capita are under pressure to adjust their lifestyles that respect the Earths' carrying capacity. As far as countries in the Asia and Pacific region are concerned, mere technological solutions such as improving production efficiency will not be adequate to address climate change; a paradigm shift to more resource-efficient and low-carbon lifestyles, that promote inclusive and efficient consumption is the need of the hour. Several examples of good practices and community initiatives can be found around the world, but these have yet to be brought to the mainstream in order to achieve tangible results. Governments and policy makers in the Asia-Pacific can join hands with businesses and civil society to accelerate this transition - from a consumption-oriented economic paradigm, to a more sustainable way of production and consumption. This paper attempts to identify lifestyle changes at the individual level, and behavioral changes at the community level that could offer high carbon abatement potential. It also provides some good practices of public policies and policy recommendations that can be pivotal in making a business case of low-carbon and eco-efficient lifestyles, strengthening collective awareness, and influencing public decision-making in developing countries in Asia

The Transformation of organic regulation: The ambiguous effects of publicization

Standards for organic agriculture were initiated by private organizations, and their production was once the exclusive domain of these organizations. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the power to define what is organic was transferred into public hands. Organic agriculture is unique among private regulatory regimes in that it is the only one that evolved into a regime where the establishment of minimum standards has become the monopoly of public institutions. The transformation of private into public regulation is termed here publicization, a word chosen to shift attention from the phenomenon of regulatory privatization to an inverse pattern, whereby the public regulator takes a central role in the definition of standards that started off as private ones. This article is the first to study the effects of the process of publicization of organic standards, an area neglected by regulation and governance scholars. The central hypothesis studied is that the process of publicization has empowerment and containment effects at the same time. On the one hand, the publicization of standards can be seen overall as supportive of organic agriculture. On the other hand, the ‘core values’ of organic agriculture have been gradually corrupted by publicization. This apparent contradiction can be understood in light of the nature of the organic agriculture that emerged, at least in part, as a critique of certain public regulatory institutions. The ambiguous effects of publicization may thus reflect the contested dimension of this regulatory regime. This research also sheds light on the dynamic interaction between public and private regulation. Next to the minimum standards set by the public regulators, the European regime allows for private standard setters to adopt more stringent standards. The vibrant activity of European private regulators shows how coexistence of public and private regulation lead to a multi-layered system where private standard setters operate as innovators and push for standards closer to the core values of the organic movement. By contrast, the US institutional architecture has reduced the regulatory capabilities of private actors, by de facto capping the possibility of private actors to set higher standards for organic agriculture. The findings of this article are of general relevance for the normative debate on the desirability of governmental intervention in private regulatory schemes