Bringing the principles of Organic Agriculture fully into practice can make organic the mainstream approach to sustainability

The reality of the present world falls far short of the vision of a sustainable world: over-reliance on cheap, non-renewable energy, declining biodiversity, loss of fertile soils, rampant pollution, threatened water supplies, poverty and inequity. The Principles of Organic Agriculture encompass a broad vision of a better world, of social and environmental harmony. Only by considering all dimensions of sustainability – societal, ecological, economic, and cultural – can we attain such a vision with a process of continuous improvements. By aspiring to best practices we take a path to an agriculture that can be sustained over the long term. The Organic World must improve its own performance, both in terms of productivity and of relevance to a full spectrum of sustainability issues. We need to demonstrate that organic practices really work and are attractive enough to be adopted by the mainstream. We need to help the producers who identify themselves as "organic" embody best practices more and more. Furthermore, we need to highlight and find solutions for the most pressing issues beyond farming itself that affect the viability of organic producers, such as energy scarcity, debt, misguided policies, and unbalanced consumer habits

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies – Organic Agriculture

This psoter presents information on the following - The concept of organic farming in the context of climate change - Carbon sequestration on organic farms - Consequences of an area-wide conversion to organic agricultur

The Organic sector in 2017 and 2020, and how to get there

Conclusions during the Organic World Congress and the developed strategies have to be implemented and require actions for further growth of the Organic Sector. By 2017 and 2020 the socio-economic and ecological environment will have changed and will have an impact on the Organic Sector. The Organic Sector will be shaped by the actions of organic stakeholders, which ideally are aligned and do not contradict each other

Challenging a dogma of exercise physiology: does an incremental exercise test for valid VO(2) max determination really need to last between 8 and 12 minutes?

Adrian W. Midgley, David J. Bentley, Hans Luttikholt, Lars R. McNaughton and Gregoire P. Mille

Incentives to Change: The Experience of the Organic Sector

If we as society want to see real change in the world and move towards true sustainability, the real cost of our current food system needs to be made evident—and eventually reflected in the price—so that all participants can take full responsibility for their actions.We need to change how we treat the environment and use natural resources, as well as how we interact with each other when it comes to food and agriculture. Organic agriculture, which has been practised for several decades now, can teach many lessons about how to steer such a transformative process effectively

Detection of Coxiella burnetii in the bulk tank milk from a farm with vaccinated goats, by using a specific PCR technique

Q fever is a zoonotic disease, caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Between 2007 and 2010, Q fever has been a major public health concern in the Netherlands, with almost 3500 human cases reported and dairy goats considered to be the most probable source. At the end of 2009, the Dutch government decided to cull all pregnant dairy sheep and dairy goats based on bulk tank milk C. burnetii positive farms, aiming to preventing shedding and to reducing environmental contamination. On bulk tank milk C. burnetii PCR positive farms, a life-time breeding ban was implemented for all remaining non-pregnant small ruminants. This study describes test results on a bulk tank milk C. burnetii PCR positive dairy goat farm on which all goats had been vaccinated against Q fever with an inactivated phase one vaccine since 2008. All pregnant dairy goats of this farm were culled in 2010, after which bulk tank milk was negative in the C. burnetii PCR. One year later, however, this farm became bulk tank milk C. burnetii PCR positive again. From all lactating animals on the farm (n = 350), individual milk samples were collected and tested using a commercial real-time PCR assay. Individual milk samples from five dairy goats appeared to be C. burnetii PCR positive. These positive goats had been born on the farm between 2002 and 2006. At postmortem examination, out of 33 mostly tissue samples per animal, only milk and mammary tissue samples were C. burnetii PCR positive. Moreover, immunohistochemical examination did not reveal the source of C. burnetii. After culling of these C. burnetii PCR milk positive animals, the bulk tank milk remained negative in C. burnetii PCR until the end of the observation period. The results indicate that vaccination of Q fever infected dairy goat farms does not completely prevent intermittent shedding of C. burnetii in probably previously infected goats. Further research is needed to investigate how and where C. burnetii multiplies in such intermittently shedding animals

Detection of Coxiella burnetii in the bulk tank milk from a farm with vaccinated goats, by using a specific PCR technique

Q fever is a zoonotic disease, caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Between 2007 and 2010, Q fever has been a major public health concern in the Netherlands, with almost 3500 human cases reported and dairy goats considered to be the most probable source. At the end of 2009, the Dutch government decided to cull all pregnant dairy sheep and dairy goats based on bulk tank milk C. burnetii positive farms, aiming to preventing shedding and to reducing environmental contamination. On bulk tank milk C. burnetii PCR positive farms, a life-time breeding ban was implemented for all remaining non-pregnant small ruminants. This study describes test results on a bulk tank milk C. burnetii PCR positive dairy goat farm on which all goats had been vaccinated against Q fever with an inactivated phase one vaccine since 2008. All pregnant dairy goats of this farm were culled in 2010, after which bulk tank milk was negative in the C. burnetii PCR. One year later, however, this farm became bulk tank milk C. burnetii PCR positive again. From all lactating animals on the farm (n = 350), individual milk samples were collected and tested using a commercial real-time PCR assay. Individual milk samples from five dairy goats appeared to be C. burnetii PCR positive. These positive goats had been born on the farm between 2002 and 2006. At postmortem examination, out of 33 mostly tissue samples per animal, only milk and mammary tissue samples were C. burnetii PCR positive. Moreover, immunohistochemical examination did not reveal the source of C. burnetii. After culling of these C. burnetii PCR milk positive animals, the bulk tank milk remained negative in C. burnetii PCR until the end of the observation period. The results indicate that vaccination of Q fever infected dairy goat farms does not completely prevent intermittent shedding of C. burnetii in probably previously infected goats. Further research is needed to investigate how and where C. burnetii multiplies in such intermittently shedding animals