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Organic agriculture and food security The article below
from the Crucially, a worldwide shift to organic agriculture could fight world hunger and at the same time tackle climate change. Research confirms the potential of a new organic farming paradigm to secure more than enough food to feed the world, and with reduced environmental impacts. Other benefits highlighted in the article include increased yields, economic returns, reduced environmental impacts and restoration of ecological balance, less energy use and reduced greenhouse gases, and health benefits. Moreover, priority should be given to agricultural production that targets local food needs in local markets, and in ensuring the well-being of farmers. With
best wishes,
--------------------------------------- The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has come out in favour of organic agriculture. Its report Organic Agriculture and Food Security explicitly states that organic agriculture can address local and global food security challenges. Organic farming is no longer to be considered a niche market within developed countries, but a vibrant commercial agricultural system practised in 120 countries, covering 31 million hectares (ha) of cultivated land plus 62 million ha of certified wild harvested areas. The organic market was worth US$40 billion in 2006, and expected to reach US$70 billion by 2012. Nadia Scialabba, an FAO official, defined organic agriculture as: “A holistic production management system that avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and genetically modified organisms, minimises pollution of air, soil and water, and optimises the health and productivity of plants, animals and people.” The strongest benefits of organic agriculture, Scialabba said, are its reliance on fossil fuel independent, locally available resources that incur minimal agro-ecological stresses and are cost effective. She described organic agriculture as a ‘neo-traditional food system’ which combines modern science and indigenous knowledge. The FAO Report strongly suggests
that a worldwide shift to organic agriculture can fight world hunger
and at the same time tackle climate change. According to FAO’s previous
World Food Organic agriculture overcomes paradox of conventional food production systems -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The new FAO Report frames a paradox within the conventional food production systems as follows:
In contrast, organic agriculture offers an alternative food system that improves agricultural performance to better provide access to food, nutritional adequacy, environmental quality, economic efficiency, and social equity. This is crucial if agricultural production in developing countries is to rise by 56 percent by 2030 to meet nutritional needs, as stated in the Report. Researchers recommend a shift to organic agriculture especially for poor developing countries ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Evidence presented to the
FAO by the Danish Research Centre for Food and Farming confirm the potential
of a new organic farming paradigm to secure more than enough food to
feed the world, and with reduced environmental impacts. The results,
using a computer model developed by the The conversion of global
agriculture to organic farming, without converting wild lands for agricultures
and using N-fertilisers, would result in a global agricultural supply
of 2640 to 4380 kcal/day/person. These conclusions came from a research
team led by Catherine Badgley at the The fact that sustainable intensification of organic agriculture could increase production by up to 56% is good news, as despite gains in food production and food security in some countries, sub-Saharan Africa produces less food per person than it did 30 years ago; and the number of chronically malnourished people in the region has doubled since 1970, from 96 million to over 200 million in 1996. This reflects the wider picture that developing countries have registered outright declines in yield increases under conventional agriculture between 1972-1992. In contrast, the current
FAO Report presents evidence that organic management systems have doubled
yields in arid and degraded soils in Recommendations arising from the FAO report feed directly into the framework for the Right to Adequate Food and also into the Millenium Development Goal (MDG)1 for reducing hunger and poverty, MDG7 for environmental sustainability, and MDG 8 for global partnerships with emphasis on hidden, acute or chronic hunger. Environmental and economic benefits of organic agriculture ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Danish researchers suggest
that a 50 percent organic conversion by 2020 in the food exporting regions
of North America and The FAO Report points to further benefits such as better animal welfare, wildlife protection, avoidance of GMOs and pesticides, more jobs and less energy used. Results from studies carried out by the US Department of Agriculture support the FAO findings; showing that organic crops are worth more than conventional crops on the market, and on average, farmers could net $50-$60 more per acre by going organic, even with the highest transitional costs. The expansion and intensification of conventional farming is harmful not only to the environment, but also to the very resources essential to farming. Over the past two decades, some 15 million ha of tropical forests are lost each year to provide land for agriculture, and at a tremendous loss of genetic diversity. During the same period, soil erosion and other forms of land degradation cost the world between 5-7 million ha of farming land every year; a further 1.5 million ha are lost to waterlogging and salination, and an additional 30 million ha damaged. Organic agriculture has the
potential to reverse those trends, and reduce carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxide and methane, greenhouse gasses (GHG) that contribute to global
warming. Organic agriculture could double soil carbon sequestration
in livestock based systems and decrease GHG by 48-60 percent. For example,
organic systems have decreased the use of fossil fuels by between 10-70
percent in Europe, and 29-37 percent in the On organic farms, increasing soil organic matter and microbial biomass is a fundamental principle to support agro-ecosystem stability. Mandatory crop rotation, the use of seeds and breeds that are adapted to local conditions, and the regeneration of functional biodiversity all contribute further to ecological balance. Organic networks meet local food demands and benefit farmers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The FAO gives top priorities to agricultural production that targets local food needs in local markets, allowing imports only for items not grown locally, and exporting high value produce. In developing countries,
food quantity, quality and availability in urban areas are enriched
by organic market gardens where local produce is sold to international
markets and domestic supermarkets. This reduces dependence on cheap
subsidised imports, which are projected to rise to more than 160 million
tonnes by the year 2010. For example, a food network in A successful conversion to
organic agriculture has occurred in parts of As organic produce enters
the mainstream, consumers are willing to pay higher prices in exchange
for truthful labelling and absorb some of the extra costs of organic
agriculture. Demand for organic produce has encouraged countries like
Producing organic food has distinct benefits for farmers too. Farmers’ rights to local seeds and varieties are strengthened, knowledge sharing is promoted, incomes are raised, production increased, environmental and health protection is improved, natural resources are conserved and outward rural migration is reversed. As organic farming is highly knowledge intensive, the FAO recognises that the organisation of organic farmers and growers associations, co-operatives, enterprises, and community groups is crucial to research and development. Farmers converting to organic methods also increase incomes by minimising chemical inputs and other industrial interventions and thereby break the cycle of indebtedness that has devastated hundreds of thousands of farmers’ livelihoods. Ensuring farmers well-being and increasing national and regional self reliance in food production methods that meet key environmental and animal welfare standards will not only enhance food security, but will also reduce the use of fossil fuel use for food transportation and production. Health benefits of organic agriculture --------------------------------------------- As the FAO Report points out, organic foods tend to have higher micronutrient content that contributes to better health, lower incidence of non-communicable diseases and boosts plant and animal immunity against disease. The UK Soil Association carried out a systematic review of the evidence comparing trace minerals in organic and non-organic food, and found that on average, organic food contains higher levels of vitamin C and essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and chromium. An independent study found higher levels of all 21 nutrients in organic crops, particularly potatoes, cabbage, spinach and lettuce. Evidence suggests that organic crops contain up to fifty percent fewer mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungi) and have a longer shelf life. Organic farmers produce good
food from developing a balanced living soil and using only as a last
resort four of the hundreds of pesticides on tap to conventional farmers.
Non-organic fruits can be sprayed up to 16 times with 36 different pesticides.
In 2003 the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) conceded that: ”…buying organic
is a way to reduce the chances of your food containing these pesticides.”
Pesticide residues used in conventional farming such as organophosphates
are linked with cancers, foetal abnormalities, chronic fatigue syndrome,
and Parkinson’s, as well as allergies, especially in children, and breast
cancer in women. The US Government linked pesticide residues to the
top three environmental cancer risks. A study in Organic agriculture provides long term solutions ----------------------------------------------------------- The FAO Report concludes that a broad scale shift to organic agriculture can produce enough food on a global per capita basis to feed the world’s population over the next 50 years. Workable solutions to pressing problems such as the growth in population and consumption, oil peak, fossil fuel dependence, food transport, and agricultural sector employment are all built in holistically to the organic agriculture paradigm. Therefore, as the myth of ‘low yield organic agriculture’ recedes, it is up to the agricultural researchers, officials and Governments to invest in long-term alternative agricultural systems such as green manures that can provide enough biologically fixed nitrogen to replace all the synthetic nitrogen currently used on the planet. Despite skepticism at the potential of organic agriculture to feed the world, if conventional farmers adopted only some of its principles such as soil health and ecology, the results would strongly benefit farmers, consumers and the environment.
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