Organic Farming and Agricultural Sustainability

Organic farming is increasingly recognised, by consumers, farmers, environmentalists and policy-makers, as one of a number of possible models for environmental, social and financial sustainability in agriculture. It has taken a long time to get this far. Organic farming’s roots can be traced back more than 100 years, to various individuals and movements concerned about soil conservation, pesticide use, resource use, animal welfare, land stewardship, nature conservation, diet, human health and social justice. Certified organic production dates back nearly 30 years (70 years in the case of Demeter-certified bio-dynamic production), with production standards reflecting the evolving priorities and objectives of organic farming. But the main role of organic production standards and certification has been to define a distinct market for the products, so that consumer willingness to pay for the benefits of organic farming can be harnessed to compensate producers for internalising external costs. As such, the market developed as a means to achieving the ethical objectives of organic farming, not an end in itself. Recent years have seen very rapid growth in organic farming. In 1985, certified and policy-supported organic production accounted for just 100,000 ha in western Europe (EU and EFTA), or less than 0.1% of the total agricultural area. By the end of 1997, this figure had increased to 2.3 million ha, more than 1.6% of the total agricultural area (Foster and Lampkin, 1999). It is likely that by the end of 1998, nearly 3.0 million ha was managed organically, representing a 30-fold increase in 13 years. These figures hide great variability within and between countries. Several countries have now achieved 5-10% of their agricultural area managed organically, and in some cases more than 30% on a regional basis. Countries like Austria, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, and this year the UK, have seen the fastest rates of growth. But a number of others still languish below the 1% level. Alongside the increase in the supply base, the market for organic produce has also grown, but statistics on the overall size of the market for organic produce in Europe are still very limited. Recent estimates have placed the retail sales value of the European market for organic food at £3-5 billion in 1997. 70% of the expansion in the land area has taken place in the last five years, since the implementation in 1993 of EC Regulation 2092/91 defining organic crop production, and the widespread application of policies to support conversion to and continued organic farming as part of the agri-environment programme (EC Reg. 2078/92). The former has provided a secure basis for the agri-food sector to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for organic food across Europe. The latter has provided the financial basis to overcome perceived and real barriers to conversion. Despite some obvious successes in terms of consumer demand and supply growth, many policy makers, academics and farming leaders are still uncertain about the potential contribution of organic farming to the future development of mainstream agriculture, and to sustainability issues in particular. Organic farming is considered by some to be too idealistic and restrictive. What is needed, they argue, is an intermediate approach, such as integrated crop management that is not as ‘extreme’ as organic farming and is therefore more likely to be acceptable to the majority of farmers. Policy-makers face a difficult choice. Should they encourage more organic farming, which may offer more environmental and other benefits than the intermediate approaches, but will only be adopted by a minority of farmers? Or should they encourage the intermediate approaches, which, although the environmental benefits are more limited, may be adopted by more farmers, with possibly greater overall impact? And if, contrary to expectations, organic farming did become widely adopted, how could we feed a growing global population? This paper seeks to address a number of these questions

A Modelling Approach for Evaluating Agri-Environmental Policies at Sector Level

This paper presents a new approach to evaluate the cost effectiveness of agri-environmental policies at sector level. Policy uptake, cumulative environmental effects and public expenditure are identified as the main determinants of cost-effectiveness. On the basis of the sector-consistent, comparative-static, farm group model FARMIS, the determinants of policy cost-effectiveness at sector level are addressed. Firstly, intensity levels for the FARMIS activities are defined in order to model uptake of agri-environmental policies with FARMIS, secondly, life-cycle assessment data is attached to these intensity levels to determine environmental effects of the policies and thirdly, public expenditure is calculated under consideration of transaction costs. This paper concludes delineating the strengths and limitations of the approach

Lessons learnt from ORGAP Project – planning, implementation and evaluation of Action Plans for Organic Food and Farming

Within the EU funded project ORGAP, a toolbox was developed for the evaluation of the European as well as national action plans for organic food and farming. Also recommendations and a resource manual for policy makers and stakeholders were developed. These were based on the analysis of national Organic Action Plans as well as stakeholder and expert consultation. The analysis showed that several EU member states have emphasised the need to balance supply-push policies with more market-focused demand-pull policies. An integrated approach is required and this has been to differing degrees through the formulation of multi-functional Organic Action Plans (OAPs), which also adress the dual roles of organic farming (from a policy perspective) to provide public goods and satisfy consumer demand. Eight Organic Action Plans, reviewed in the ORGAP project, vary with regard to the elaboration process, targets, objectives and the emphasis of measures on certain areas (e.g. market versus environment orientation). This variation is due to quite different political and socio-economic framework conditions for organic farming in these countries. It revealed that the weaknesses identified in the status quo analysis of the organic sector have only partly been translated to the targets and measures included in the action plan documents. Definition of the priorities for development of organic agriculture must be agreed by all relevant stakeholders. The priorities, and hence the programmes, will depend on correct analysis of the issues (and conflicts) that need to be addressed and clear objectives with measurable outcomes (for effective evaluation). For more information on the project, on the practical project manual and the evaluation toolbox for Organic Action Plans see project website www.orgap.or

A Pragmatic Assessment of Government Support for Organic Agriculture in Ireland

Drawing on a pragmatic approach, this paper provides an analysis of governmental support for organic farming in Ireland. There are varying levels of encouragement and programmes provided to farmers in their conversion from conventional to organic production, and in their maintenance of organic production. Support policies vary across regions and are linked to European Union legislation, thus it is challenging to document the many types of support in place. This research investigates relevant technical, financial, and policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops an assessment of Ireland within eight key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, and future developments. Information and data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF), the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies were utilized to assess the level of support in each category. Following the pragmatic approach, this assessment provides key findings which allow policymakers, organizations and citizens to better understand the current situation and set a path for the future development of organic farming in Ireland

A comparision of GHG emissions from UK field crop production under selected arable systems with reference to disease control

Crop disease not only threatens global food security by reducing crop production at a time of growing demand, but also contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by reducing efficiency of N fertiliser use and farm operations and by driving land use change. GHG emissions associated with adoption of reduced tillage, organic and integrated systems of field crop production across the UK and selected regions are compared with emissions from conventional arable farming to assess their potential for climate change mitigation. The reduced tillage system demonstrated a modest (<20%) reduction in emissions in all cases, although in practice it may not be suitable for all soils and it is likely to cause problems with control of diseases spread on crop debris. There were substantial increases in GHG emissions associated with the organic and integrated systems at national level, principally due to soil organic carbon losses from land use change. At a regional level the integrated system shows the potential to deliver significant emission reductions. These results indicate that the conventional crop production system, coupled to reduced tillage cultivation where appropriate, is generally the best for producing high yields to minimise greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to global food security, although there may be scope for use of the integrated system on a regional basis. The control of crop disease will continue to have an essential role in both maintaining productivity and decreasing GHG emissions.Peer reviewe

Synthetic Double-Stranded RNAs Are Adjuvants for the Induction of T Helper 1 and Humoral Immune Responses to Human Papillomavirus in Rhesus Macaques

Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands are being considered as adjuvants for the induction of antigen-specific immune responses, as in the design of vaccines. Polyriboinosinic-polyribocytoidylic acid (poly I:C), a synthetic double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), is recognized by TLR3 and other intracellular receptors. Poly ICLC is a poly I:C analogue, which has been stabilized against the serum nucleases that are present in the plasma of primates. Poly I:C12U, another analogue, is less toxic but also less stable in vivo than poly I:C, and TLR3 is essential for its recognition. To study the effects of these compounds on the induction of protein-specific immune responses in an animal model relevant to humans, rhesus macaques were immunized subcutaneously (s.c.) with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) or human papillomavirus (HPV)16 capsomeres with or without dsRNA or a control adjuvant, the TLR9 ligand CpG-C. All dsRNA compounds served as adjuvants for KLH-specific cellular immune responses, with the highest proliferative responses being observed with 2 mg/animal poly ICLC (p = 0.002) or 6 mg/animal poly I:C12U (p = 0.001) when compared with immunization with KLH alone. Notably, poly ICLC—but not CpG-C given at the same dose—also helped to induce HPV16-specific Th1 immune responses while both adjuvants supported the induction of strong anti-HPV16 L1 antibody responses as determined by ELISA and neutralization assay. In contrast, control animals injected with HPV16 capsomeres alone did not develop substantial HPV16-specific immune responses. Injection of dsRNA led to increased numbers of cells producing the T cell–activating chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL10 as detected by in situ hybridization in draining lymph nodes 18 hours after injections, and to increased serum levels of CXCL10 (p = 0.01). This was paralleled by the reduced production of the homeostatic T cell–attracting chemokine CCL21. Thus, synthetic dsRNAs induce an innate chemokine response and act as adjuvants for virus-specific Th1 and humoral immune responses in nonhuman primates

Contribution of Microbe-Mediated Processes in Nitrogen Cycle to Attain Environmental Equilibrium

Nitrogen (N), the most important element, is required by all living organisms for the synthesis of complex organic molecules like amino acids, proteins, lipids etc. Nitrogen cycle is considered to be the most complex yet arguably important cycle next to carbon cycle. Nitrogen cycle includes oxic and anoxic reactions like organic N mineralization, ammonia assimilation, nitrification denitrification, anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), comammox, codenitrification etc. Nitrogen cycling is one of the most crucial processes required for the recycling of essential chemical requirements on the planet. Soil microorganisms not only improve N-cycle balance but also pave the way for sustainable agricultural practices, leading to improved soil properties and crop productivity as most plants are opportunistic in the uptake of soluble or available forms of N from soil. Microbial N transformations are influenced by plants to improve their nutrition and vice versa. Diverse microorganisms, versatile metabolic activities, and varied biotic and abiotic conditions may result in the shift in the equilibrium state of different N-cycling processes. This chapter is an overview of the mechanisms and genes involved in the diverse microorganisms associated in the operation of nitrogen cycle and the roles of such microorganisms in different agroecosystems

Improving farm-level physical and financial data availability at EU level

This paper summarises the main findings and recommendations of the EISFOM (European Information System for Organic Markets) project with respect to organic farm level data. At the EU level, the Farm Structure Survey and EU Reg. 2092/91 provide the most detailed data on production structures (crop areas and livestock numbers), and EU and national FADNs are becoming a useful source of financial data, but good quality data on output and prices of specific crop and livestock products are lacking. To improve the situation, more effort is needed on accurate identification of organic holdings and individual crop and livestock products, including the harmonisation of classification systems and improved sample selection. The common nature of problems identified across different existing databases suggests an integrated approach to identifying solutions is neede