The iPOPY project – a research commitment to more sustainable public food

The schooldays of European children and youth tend to get longer, and their eating patterns, especially during school hours, are often unsatisfactory. Healthy school food is a logic response to this situation. Organic food contributes to sustainable nutrition, and hence is an interesting starting point for healthier menus and food education. The research project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth” (iPOPY) studies efficient ways to implement organic food in public serving outlets for young people. Out of the four iPOPY funding countries, Finland and Italy serve a warm school meal daily for all pupils, whereas Denmark and Norway rely on packed lunch from home. Italy and Denmark have ambitious goals for organic food in schools, whereas Finland and Norway have not (yet). In Germany, different states have very different school meal systems, but the interest for organic food is generally high. We argue that school food served in “captive catering” such as found in Finland, financed by the public and made by organic or otherwise sustainable products, has the largest potential to support a sustainable nutrition and -development

Studies of the availability of soil phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in organic farming systems, and of plant adaptations to low P- and K-availability

In organic farming systems, the purchase of nutrients is firmly restricted as compared to conventional farming systems. This will often cause a negative nutrient budget on the field level, especially in cases with low animal density, where more nutrients are removed in yields than are applied in fertilisers. Studies on five organic dairy farms in Southern Norway, that were aiming at self-sufficiency,revealed that the concentrations of ammonium-acetate lactate (AL) soluble phosphorus (P) had decreased with time. The farms had been organically managed since 1986 or earlier. It was found that the higher the initial P-AL concentration,the greater was the decrease that occurred, calculated per year. Out of 156 topsoil samples,only 6 had low P-AL values (< 25 mg P kg-1 soil) at the second soil sampling. Nevertheless, in the long run, a supply of P will be required in organic farming systems. For potassium (K), no corresponding decrease in K-AL was found, but for this nutrient a considerable proportion of the cultivated land had low concentrations (< 65 mg K kg-1 soil) on all farms. The concentrations of acidsoluble K were also low to medium. With soil that does not have a high ability to replace K taken up by plants, a supply of K will be required in organic farming systems. Hence, the development of nutrient supplies that may fulfil the standards of organic farming is very important. Furthermore, organic farmers must strive even harder than their conventional colleagues to reduce nutrient losses caused by for example erosion or during animal manure storage and spreading. A basic principle in organic farming is the cycling of nutrients within the farming system. With low animal density, plant material may be used as manure (green manure or mulching). The fate of P, K and nitrogen (N) was studied when chopped plant material was used as a mulch in vegetable growing. Application of 9-10 tonnes plant dry matter (DM) ha-1 increased vegetable yields by 26% in the year of application, and grain yields were increased by 0.6 tonne ha-1 in the subsequent year. However, when the nutrient uptake in non-mulched plants was subtracted, only 15-20% of the N, P and K applied in mulch was recovered by the vegetable crops. Much of the N was probably lost by leaching or gaseous losses, whereas most of the surplus P and K were recovered in soil. The mulch-method is suited for relatively small farms with low animal density where there is no capacity to use all the farmland for vegetables. About 2/3 of the land should be used for mulch production, and 1/3 devoted to vegetables. A systematic crop rotation must be used to avoid an uneven distribution of nutrients within the farm. Studies in low-P growing media have shown that plants may react to low P supply by adaptations such as increased root-shoot ratio, relatively longer and thinner roots or longer root hairs. Plants have a remarkable ability to adapt tochanges in environmental conditions, such as a variable nutrient supply. In order to assess whether such daptations might be useful for organic farming systems, this topic was studied by growing accessions of spring wheat and barley released during the period 1900-2000, in the field at both optimum and limited nutrient supply, as well as in the laboratory in low-P utrient solution, where root traits were recorded. Nutrient uptake and grain yields varied significantly, but the relations between nutrient uptake and root traits were weak. Modern accessions produced higher yields than older ones, mostly because they had a higher harvest index and were more resistant to fungal disease.In cereal breeding, root traits should be recorded and the root length is important. As no significant differences in SRL were found among barley or wheat accessions in our study, I suggest that root characterisation may be simplified by estimating root length from the root weight and an appropriate value for the specific root length (SRL, m root g-1 root DM). Measuring SRL is very tedious. Most studies that have shown large effects in root or root hair growth, as a consequence of low P supply, have either not confirmed the obtained results under a controlled nvironment in the field, or the plants were not grown to maturity. Commonly, the P oncentration in such studies has been below a level that is relevant for practical farming. Such low levels would most probably have led to crop failure in the field. My studies indicate that root morphological adaptations to low P concentrations in soil are of theoretical interest, as they demonstrate the ability of plants to survive in contrasting environments. However, for the conditions found in agricultural soil within the Nordic countries, such adaptations probably have little significance

State of the art of the project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth” (iPOPY)

The paper is part of the proceedings of an iPOPY seminar. The authors give an overview of the iPOPY project and its first results. This outline of the holistic research approach helps locate the challenges of the supply side of public organic food procurement for youth

Perennial leys for dairy cows: soil and plant attributes, yield and botanical composition with long-term low and high N input

Soil chemical properties, plant nutrient concentrations, yields and botanical composition were studied in a high (mimicking conventional) and low nitrogen (N) input (mimicking self-sufficient organic) farming system over 7 years in a field experiment in Tingvoll, Norway. We compared digested and undigested manure from organically managed dairy cows with two application rates, 110 and 220 kg total N ha-1 yr-1. All, treatments and control, were cultivated with perennial grass-clover ley, re-established once during the study period. In this paper, treatments with high N input are combined to represent conventional farming systems, while low N input treatments represent organic farming systems. After 7 years, AL-extractable phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) concentrations in soil were significantly (p=0.002) higher in the "conventional" treatments than in the "organic" treatments. Despite the double amount of manure, cumulative ley yield (2011-18) was only 17% higher (p<0.001) in the conventional treatment. In 2018, concentration of P in the aboveground plant material was significantly higher in all fertilised treatments than in the control (p=0.041), and significantly higher in the conventional than in the organic treatment (p<0.001). N use efficiency (NUE% = N removed (in ley yields) / N applied (manure) x 100)ranged from 102-163% for the organic treatment, suggesting that more N was removed by ley yields than it was applied with manure. This N may derive from soil or biological N fixation. The conventional treatment had a NUE between 59 and 96%. Low NUE% indicates excessive use of fertiliser that may cause environmental pollution. Botanical composition of the grass-clover ley (2015) was affected by N application rates, with significantly less clover (p=0.008) and more grass (p=0.003) in the high N input treatments. Overall, our findings indicate that in the long-term high N input farming systems do not necessary translate in significant gains of ley yield production when comparing to low N input systems. NUE and clover content of the ley will be reduced with higher N input

Increasing organic consumption by school meals – lessons learned in the iPOPY project

Increasingly, food consumption occurs in out-of-home contexts, where organic food can also have a role to play. Public food services may be utilised to increase the sustainability of providing nutrition. Although school meals may be well suited to integrating organic food and sustainable nutrition concepts, school food provision systems are very different across Europe. This paper compares school food provision systems and their utilisation of organic food in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy and Norway, discussing how various strategies and instruments used for organic food procurement in school meals may increase organic food consumption. Using five analytical categories—(a) type of school food service, (b) degree of public financing, (c) degree of political and administrative involvement in school food procurement in general, (d) degree of specific support for organic school food, and (e) availability of organic food supply adapted to school food service— values have been assessed for each country in order to summarise and visually display their differences. Especially, the degree of specific support for organic school food shows a significant relation to the actual use of organic food in school meals. To maximise the share of organic food in school meals, instruments should be adapted to the actual points of departure in each case. It is argued that strategies and instruments designed to promote public procurement of organic food increase the consumption of organic food in schools and that such policies will have the greatest impact when they are linked up with broader concepts such as a whole-school approach and sustainable nutrition

Tables describing the use of various inputs during organic growing of important horticultural and arable crops across Europe

This Annex presents the results of the survey carried out in the frame of Tasks 3.1. and Task 5.1 in the Organic PLUS project. A common table/questionnaire for both tasks was used in order to map the use of contentious inputs linked to plant protection (mainly Cu, S and mineral oils), and the use of peat, plastic and fertilisers used in growing, in 10 countries participating in Organic-PLUS (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey and UK). The survey was carried out mainly by interviewing one to three experienced advisors per crop, asking them to fill in a table describing a typical organic production of the relevant crop, emphasising the use of various inputs. An accompanying letter was used along with the questionnaire to explain the aim of this work. For Poland, the information was based on inputs recorded by a simple web survey from several producers. For UK, information was not compiled in crop tables. Instead, the largest organic growers’ association, Soil Association (SA) interviewed several growers, and analysed the permissions to use restricted inputs that were given in one year. The information provided by SA is also included in this report. The collected raw material is presented in in the following sections. Note that the names of the experts, consultants and growers interviewed are not presented to allow anonymity for the data given

Is there any certification of public organic procurement in iPOPY countries?

On 24 June 1991, the Council of the European Union adopted Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs. As well as defining the required method of production of crops and livestock they also regulate labelling, processing, marketing, import and inspection. The research project iPOPY compares and analyses procedures for certification of food-serving outlets within its participating countries (Norway, Denmark, Finland and Italy) using Germany as a reference. While Denmark chooses government agencies to carry out the inspection and certification, Italy, Finland, Norway and Germany choose a state-supervised private system. With the exception of Italy all have a national organic label. Currently only Germany has publicly adopted a standard organic certification programme for the out of home sector. Of the countries analysed, Norway has the most similar system, whereas Denmark and Finland offer operators defined categories of organic use. Though Italy leads in organic use in schools there appears to be no national or other verification system in operation

Organic school meal systems – towards a more sustainable nutrition

Nutritional and health problems related to life style alarm European governments. The interest in school meals as a lever for change is increasing because young people reside longer in public institutions and their often unsatisfactory eating patterns might be counterbalanced by healthy school food. Organic food contributes to sustainable nutrition, and hence is an interesting starting point for healthier menus and food education. The research project ‘innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth’ (iPOPY) studies efficient ways to implement organic food in public serving outlets for young people. The project has four explorative work packages studying policies, supply chains and certification, the young consumers’ perception and learning about sustainability and organic food, and health effects of organic menus in Denmark, Finland, Italy, and Norway. Finland and Italy serve a warm school meal daily for all pupils, whereas Denmark and Norway rely on packed lunch from home. Italy and Denmark have ambitious goals for organic food in schools, whereas Finland and Norway have not (yet). Political decisions are required, but not enough, to ensure well functioning organic school meal systems

Country Report on Organic Farming Research in Norway

To increase organic production and achieve the official aims, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (until 2004: the Ministry of Agriculture) has developed a national policy specifically targeting organic farming. This is described in the action plan Prioritised Areas within the Food- and Agricultural Research, which is linked to the White Paper of 1999. Organic farming is one out of seven topics to be prioritised for research funding. For this farming method, the Ministry considers the following needs to be of greatest importance: To reduce various biological and economical risks linked to production; to increase the diversity and quality of organic products in the market and the general knowledge of organic markets and consumers; and to increase the knowledge of the whole value chain from production via processing to distribution of organic produce. An Action Plan for Organic Production and Sales launched by the Norwegian Agricultural Authority (SLF) in 2000, and revised in 2003, states that a range of organisations and stakeholders should feel responsible for contributing towards reaching the official aims. The RCN should have a coordinating role and cover all areas of organic research. Over the years, the main funding sources for OF&F research (the RCN, AA-funding and Levy funding, see Chapter 4) have become increasingly coordinated. For all research projects funded by these bodies, the RCN is responsible for the proposal procedures and quality control. However, the use of funds is decided upon by discussions between the individual funding boards. The funding for a specific project is often composed of contributions from more than one funding body. In later years, the government has paid more attention and devoted relatively more resources to OF&F development projects than to research projects. Market development has been regarded as the crucial task, in order to increase the demand for organic products. The Norwegian Agricultural Authority (SLF) administrates approx. € 5 million per year of public funding for development projects within the OF&F sector (38 mill. NOK in 2005 and 2006). SLF projects are not described in this report. It is challenging to draw a clear line between OF&F development and research projects, but in this report we have chosen to define OF&F research projects as the projects funded by the three funding bodies mentioned above (the RCN, AA-funding and Levy funding). Norway is a large country with a small and scattered population (4.4 million). The regional research within OF&F is usually of limited scientific value at an international level

Concentrations of soil potassium after long-term organic dairy production

On five long-term organic dairy farms aiming at self-sufficiency with nutrients, soil concentrations of ammonium-acetate lactate extractable potassium (K-AL) and acid-soluble K was measured twice in topsoil (0-20 cm) and subsoil (20-40 cm) over periods of 6-14 years. Organic management had occurred for >9 years at the second sampling. On average there were most probably field level K-deficits. Even so, topsoil K-AL concentrations were medium high (65-155 mg K kg–1 soil), and did not decrease during the study period. However, for three farms, topsoil K-AL was approaching a minimum level determined by soil texture, where further decrease is slow. Subsoil K-AL concentrations were generally low (<65). The soils were mostly light-textured, and reserves of K-releasing soil minerals (illite) were low, never exceeding 6% of the mineral particles <2 mm diameter. Topsoil acid-soluble K concentrations were low (<300 mg K kg–1 soil) on two farms, medium (300–800) on three farms and decreased significantly on one farm. Cation-exchange capacity increased on two farms. This may indicate increased amount of expanded clay minerals caused by K-depletion. On self-sufficient organic dairy farms, purchased nutrients will be required by low soil nutrient reserves to avoid seriously decreased yields and quality of crops