Organic Agriculture

A Global Perspective

Acram Taji,John Reganold, Paul Kristiansen

• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9780643099395
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Agriculture
• Index: Technology & Engineering

With global revenue surpassing twenty-five billion dollars annually, organic agriculture is a highly visible and rapidly growing component of agricultural production. In Organic Agriculture: A Global Perspective, Paul Kristiansen, Acram Taji, and John Reganold, and their international group of contributors scientifically review key aspects of organic agriculture. At the intersection of research, education, and practice, the contributors look at the organic agricultural movement's successes and limitations.

The first half of this book critically evaluates the agricultural production of both plants and livestock in organic farming systems. All major aspects of organic agriculture are explored, including historical background and underlying principles, soil-fertility management, crop and animal production, breeding strategies, and crop protection. This global and comprehensive overview also addresses the economic, social, and political aspects of organic farming. These include economics and marketing; standards and certification; environmental impacts and social responsibility; and research, education, and extension.

The book is a unique and timely science-based international work documenting current practices in organic agriculture and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. For more than two decades, research into organic methods by mainstream scientists has generated a large body of information that can now be integrated and used for assessing the actual impacts of organic farming in a wide range of disciplines. The knowledge of selected international experts has been combined in one volume, providing a comprehensive review of organic farming globally.

Researchers, teachers, extensionists, students, primary producers and others around the world who are interested in sustainable agriculture will find this book to be a valuable and reliable resource.

Chapter 1

Overview of organic agriculture

Paul Kristiansen*, University of New England, Australia and Charles Merfield, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand

*Dr Paul Kristiansen, School of Rural Science and Agriculture, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales 2351, Australia. Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone], Email: [email protected]

The most important factor that will enable organic agriculture to usefully contribute to food security is the attitude of decision-makers. Organic agriculture must be discussed with an open mind, with the advantages and disadvantages being clearly considered. (Wynen 1998)

The search for sustainability

The acquisition of food, textiles and other resources from plants and animals has been a major concern for human societies, from the earliest days as hunter-gathers, through pastoral and swidden phases, to agrarian societies, with an associated trend away from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles. Yet as agricultural production intensified and expanded, the negative effects on the underlying resource base have also increased. The history of environmental damage caused by agriculture is well documented; impacts include air pollution from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide; land degradation as a result of clearing, cultivation of sloping land and salinity; water pollution from fertilisers, pesticides, overuse and wetland draining; and the loss of biological and ecological diversity (Norse and Tschirley 2003). In the area of conventional weed science, for example, considerable attention has been placed on herbicides but this has not achieved a long-term decline in agricultural weed populations. Instead, farmers have become dependant on herbicides as widespread resistance in a range of weed species has emerged (Gill 2002).

Although the extent of the damage may be disputed by some, the seriousness of these agricultural sustainability issues is reflected in the formal policies implemented in many countries to reduce those impacts, and in the financial benefits available for (verified) good environmental performance (OECD 2001). Policies designed to improve the environmental sustainability of agriculture include bans on increasing numbers of pesticides such as the fumigant methyl bromide, financial incentives to revegetate, penalties for water pollution and funding for research into efficiency improvement (e.g. fertiliser applications) or damage abatement technologies. The various policy tools may be applied in an ad hoc way or, preferably, in a strategic manner that integrates the tools and creates a supportive milieu for adoption and improvement. In regard to measuring performance, environmental management systems (EMS) for agriculture have recently become popular with some farmers, government agencies and consumers. EMS are relatively new and suffer from several limitations including credibility, complexity, financial risk, uncertain consumer demand and patchy evidence of environmental improvement (Chang and Kristiansen 2006).

Is organic agriculture the answer to the sustainability problem?

To ensure that organic agriculture is the answer to the sustainability problem, it has to be adapted to the local farming, social, geographical and climatic factors. The European form of organic agriculture, especially its current market-driven style, is not necessarily the most appropriate system for other countries. The principles of organic agriculture are guides to tailor organic practices to each individual farming location. For example, there will always be locations where certain crops cannot be grown sustainably or economically using the current range of organic methods. As more becomes known about the environmental, social and economic performance of organic agriculture in a growing range of settings (OECD 2003), rational decisions can be made about the prospects and limitations of organic agriculture and general requirements for success can be identified.

It could be expected that settings similar to that found in Europe where organic agriculture was originally developed would be the most suitable. However, low-input systems in remote locations with marginal environments (e.g. rangeland grazing) have also been found to be well suited to organic agriculture. In New Zealand and particularly Australia, the farming conditions faced by the early proto-organic growers were very different from those encountered in Europe. In Australia the unreliable and sparse rainfall, ancient depleted soils, widely dispersed production bases and very small consumption bases present serious challenges for agriculture, both organic and conventional. Some adaptation and experimentation was going to be necessary. In parts of south-eastern Australia broadacre, organic cropping depletes phosphorus from the soil because the allowable organic fertilisers are inadequate. In contrast, further north in the rangelands of western Queensland, running beef cattle organically is straightforward and the farms appear to be no less sustainable than before conversion. Clearly, the sustainability question must be addressed in terms of particular farm types.

In many countries, organic agriculture has affected most areas of agriculture and food production, often starting in niche markets such as ‘direct to customer’ or on-farm processing. It has been adapted to local conditions, both social and agronomic, to produce viable sustainable farming strategies. This has resulted in a multitude of sustainable and profitable organic enterprises emerging around the world (Stokstad 2002, Thompson 2002) showing that organic agriculture can have a central role in ensuring that agriculture becomes fully sustainable.

Organic agriculture is just a small part of the agribusiness world, which itself is just a small part of the wider global socioeconomic system and its dominant cultural values. Consequently, the capacity of organic agriculture to influence, for example, international trade, labour relations and agrichemical policy is limited. An example of this lack of power is in the US National Organic Program (NOP) deliberations, in which representatives from the organic movement were secondary to government agencies (Merrigan 2003). Although the movement may internally aim for certain ideals, its development is inevitably shaped by global markets and politics. Stepping back from looking at the organic movement’s success, it is apparent that despite the enormous growth since the 1990s, organic agriculture still only makes up a tiny proportion of all commercial agricultural production (Norse and Tschirley 2003).

This introductory chapter presents an overview of the history and development of the organic movement from its roots in early 1900s Europe to its current position as a high-profile, thriving niche sector in global agriculture. The chapter describes some of the key people and trends which shaped modern organic agriculture and reports on the status of organic agriculture around the world in specific countries. In order to understand the aims and practices of organic agriculture, the evolution of the core principles are also discussed. Finally, some of the challenges for organic agriculture are identified.

Definition of organic agriculture

Organics, or the ‘O-word’ as Mark Lipson (1997) has wryly called organic agriculture in recognition of the ambiguous nature of the word, is a problematic label that can be interpreted to mean a wide range of things. The term ‘organic’ was first used in relation to farming by Northbourne (1940) in the book Look to the Land: ‘the farm itself must have a biological completeness; it must be a living entity, it must be a unit which has within itself a balanced organic life’. Clearly, Northbourne was not simply referring to organic inputs such as compost, but rather to the concept of managing a farm as an integrated, whole system (Lotter 2003).

The use of ‘organic’ in reference to agricultural production and food is legally constrained in many countries, and some certification agencies have more stringent compliance requirements than others. Many farmers in less developed countries may practice organic agriculture by default based on their traditional methods of production. However, it is useful to provide a general definition of organic agriculture to indicate briefly what the production systems are designed to achieve.

The international food standards, Codex Alimentarius, state:

Organic agriculture is a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasises the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs, taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems. This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfil any specific function within the system. (FAO 1999).

The term ‘organic agriculture’ as used here is based on the Codex definition just given. However, the term is expanded to include the full organic and biodynamic supply chain from inputs to final manufactured goods, as well as cultural and social aspects of the movement, not just the on-farm production aspects. The phrase ‘organic movement’ may be no longer applicable and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• 1. Organic production
• 2. Regulatory and management issues
• 3. Beyond the farm gate
• 4. Knowledge and capacity building
• 5. Summary
• Index