Vision Research Agenda to 2025

The TP Organics Vision Research Agenda was prepared between June 2007 and July 2008 on the basis of wide-ranging discussions with farmers’ organizations, scientists, organic traders and retailers, and EU-wide umbrella organizations representing a variety of commercial, non-commercial and civil interests. Up to now, research projects and national framework programmes on organic agriculture have addressed immediate technology gaps in organic agriculture and food production. This Vision has been politically expedient and has given rise to a greater number of producers and professional skills for the task of serving unexpectedly fast growing consumer driven markets. Thus, many organic research projects had a short term perspective only. In contrast to this, our vision takes a long-term perspective on the research needs of organic agriculture and food systems. The three strategic research priorities presented in the vision focus in particular on the inconsistencies between economy, ecology and social cohesion in agriculture and food production and propose research activities and insightful learning concepts for organic and other farming systems

Forschungsvision 2025 für die ökologische Land- und Lebensmittelwirtschaft

The TP Organics Vision Research Agenda was prepared between June 2007 and July 2008 on the basis of wide-ranging discussions with farmers’ organizations, scientists, organic traders and retailers, and EU-wide umbrella organizations representing a variety of commercial, non-commercial and civil interests. Up to now, research projects and national framework programmes on organic agriculture have addressed immediate technology gaps in organic agriculture and food production. This Vision has been politically expedient and has given rise to a greater number of producers and professional skills for the task of serving unexpectedly fast growing consumer driven markets. Thus, many organic research projects had a short term perspective only. In contrast to this, our vision takes a long-term perspective on the research needs of organic agriculture and food systems. The three strategic research priorities presented in the vision focus in particular on the inconsistencies between economy, ecology and social cohesion in agriculture and food production and propose research activities and insightful learning concepts for organic and other farming systems

Vision d‘avenir pour la recherche en agriculture biologique à l‘horizon 2025. Un savoir bio pour l‘avenir

Ce dossier a pour objectif de montrer le chemin vers un programme de recherche européen en agriculture et alimentation biologiques qui permettra de faire face aux défis des vingt prochaines années

Vizija za raziskovalni program za ekoživila in ekološko kmetijstvo do leta 2025

The TP Organics Vision Research Agenda was prepared between June 2007 and July 2008 on the basis of wide-ranging discussions with farmers’ organizations, scientists, organic traders and retailers, and EU-wide umbrella organizations representing a variety of commercial, non-commercial and civil interests. Up to now, research projects and national framework programmes on organic agriculture have addressed immediate technology gaps in organic agriculture and food production. This Vision has been politically expedient and has given rise to a greater number of producers and professional skills for the task of serving unexpectedly fast growing consumer driven markets. Thus, many organic research projects had a short term perspective only. In contrast to this, our vision takes a long-term perspective on the research needs of organic agriculture and food systems. The three strategic research priorities presented in the vision focus in particular on the inconsistencies between economy, ecology and social cohesion in agriculture and food production and propose research activities and insightful learning concepts for organic and other farming systems

Vision for an Organic Food and Farming Research Agenda 2025. Organic Knowledge for the Future.

The 'Vision for an Organic Food and Farming Research Agenda to 2025' was prepared between June 2007 and August 2008 on the basis of wideranging discussions with farmers’ organizations, scientists, organic traders and retailers, and EU-wide umbrella organizations representing a variety of commercial, non-commercial and civil interests. The Vision Paper i) shows the strengths and weaknesses of organic food and farming, ii) identifies five global and European challenges and trends on which food and farming research should focus, iii) groups the strategic priorities of future research and iv) highlights a large number of specific research activities for the future. The potential for innovation on the basis of organic knowledge is considerable and its potential impact on public goods and services as well as on markets is also great. However, current spending on research and dissemination does not adequately reflect this potential. The paper is intended to show the way towards a European organic food and farming research agenda that will help to meet the major challenges of the next twenty years. Parallel to the process of developing the Vision paper, a Technology Platform entitled “Organics” was established with a focus on sustainable food systems and public goods, and will be officially launched in autumn 2008

Addressing the specific needs of organic farming in the New EU Member States by the Rural Development Programmes 2007-2013

In all New EU Member States (NMS) and Candidate Countries (CCs) there is a lack of support measures for organic farming, other than area pay-ments, and there is no coherent policy for organic farming in general. The most significant problem areas are the general policy environment, underde-veloped marketing and processing, an almost total lack of information measures, insufficient and inap-propriate organic production capacity, and a lack of training and advisory services. The latest EU regula-tion on support for rural development provides a framework for a variety of measures to assist the development of organic farming and is therefore an important instrument for policy-makers, together with national action plans for organic farming. The problem issues can be addressed by appropriate measures in the four Axes of the Rural Development Regulation. Consistent with the EU Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming, Member States should prioritise organic farming within their overall rural development programme (RDP) in order to develop a coherent set of measures which address the most problematic issues in the national organic sectors and promote sustainable development

Breeding for diversity – political implications and new pathways for the future

At present, around 95% of organic production is based on crop varieties that were bred for the conventional high-input sector, lacking important traits required under organic and low-input production conditions. Populations with a high level of genetic diversity are promising for OA (organic agriculture) conditions due to their adaptation, resilience and performance stability in different environments. Organic farming will benefit from cultivars (populations, varieties) that can cope with multiple stresses such as weeds, diseases, pests, climate change and low nitrogen input from manure. In the COBRA project (Coordinating Organic Plant Breeding Activities for diversity), plant genetic diversity and its potential have been investigated from both an agronomic and a legal point of view. This booklet aims to give insight into the socioeconomic and legal aspects of organic plant breeding including High Diversity breeding. COBRA is a three year (2013-16) European project under the Core Organic II program. It has linked up existing organic breeding activities by a multi-partner coordinated approach. The pillars of the COBRA project are: • Seed health • Response of crops to multiple stresses • Breeding efficiency for organic systems • Networking and coordination • Socioeconomic and legal issues related to organic plant breeding Through case studies, several COBRA partners investigated how different quality requirements can be imbedded in local breeding initiatives and promote organic seed use and production. They also studied how different barriers affect organic seed production and breeding. Case studies from UK, Denmark, Slovenia, Italy and the outputs of the COBRA workshop “Financing of organic plant breeding” (Freising, Germany, 2015) are presented in the booklet