Organic Agriculture: Its Definition and Origin PDF

AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture Central Luzon State University Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija 3120 Philippines Instructional Module for the Course I...

AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture Central Luzon State University Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija 3120 Philippines Instructional Module for the Course Introduction to Organic Agriculture Module 2 Topic 1 Organic Agriculture: It’s Definition and Origin I. Overview Organic agriculture is an integrated production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity (FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2007). It emphasizes the use of natural inputs (i.e. mineral and products derived from plants) and the renunciation of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. The origins of modern organic agriculture are intertwined with the birth of today’s ‘industrially based’ agriculture. Many of the practices of organic agriculture were the only option for farmers before the advent of chemically synthesized fertilizers, biocides, medicines, mechanization and fossil fuels that allow industrial agriculture to function. Without recourse to such technologies, farmers had no option but to work within biological and ecological systems. Thus, organic agriculture is the original and mainstream agriculture and ‘conventional’ industrial agriculture is the one that departs from the practices that agriculture has been following since its start. II. Objectives 1. Understand the definition of organic agriculture and other terms related to organic agriculture. 2. Determine the origin/history of organic agriculture. III. Discussion A. Definition Organic Agriculture and Other Terms Definition of Terms (a) Organic refers to the particular farming and processing systems, described in the standards and not in the classical chemical sense. The term “organic” is synonymous in other languages to “biological” or “ecological”. It is also a labeling that denotes products considered organic based on the Philippine National Standards for organic agriculture. Page 1 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture (b) Organic agriculture - includes all agricultural systems that promote the ecologically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible production of food and fibers. Organic agriculture dramatically reduces external inputs by refraining from the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. It also covers areas such as, but not limited to, soil fertility management, varietal breeding and selection under chemical and pesticide-free conditions, the use of biotechnology and other cultural practices that are consistent with the principles and policies of this Act, and enhance productivity without destroying the soil and harming farmers, consumers and the environment as defined by International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM): Provided, That the biotechnology herein referred to shall not include genetically modified organisms or GMOs. (c) Organic production system is a system designed to: (1) enhance biological diversity within the whole system; (2) increase solid biological activity; (3) maintain long-term solid fertility (4) recycle wastes of plant and animal origin in order to return nutrients to the land, thus minimizing the use of nonrenewable resources; (5) rely on renewable resources on locally organized agricultural systems; (6) promote the healthy use of soil, water and air as well as minimize all forms of pollution thereto that may result from agricultural practices; (7) develop and promote the use of biotechnology in agriculture; (8) handle agricultural products with emphasis on careful processing methods in order to maintain the organic integrity and vital qualities of the product at all stages ; and (9) become established on any existing farm through a period of conversion, the appropriate length of which is determined by site-specific factors such as the history of the land, and type of crop and livestock to be produced. (d) Conversion period refers to the time between the start of the organic management and the certification of crops, animal husbandry or aquaculture products as organic. (e) Biodegradable wastes refer to organic matter for compost/ organic fertilizer for the organic cultivation, farming of food crops and include discards segregated farm non-biodegradable wastes coming from the kitchen/ household (leftovers, vegetables and fruit peelings and trims, fish/fowl cleanings, seeds, bones, soft paper Used as food wrap and the like); yard or garden (leaves, grasses, weeds Page 2 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture and twigs), market (wilted, decayed or rotten vegetables and fruits, fish/fowl cleanings, bones) and farm wastes (grass clippings, dead or decayed plants, leaves, fruits, vegetables, branches, twigs and the like). (f) Ecologically-sound refers to a state, quality or condition of a product, practice, system, development mode, culture, environment and the like, in accord with the 1987 Philippine Constitution, and as expounded in the above definition of organic agriculture. (g) Commercialization is a process of introducing a new agricultural and fishery technology either as product, process or service that has undergone the intensive innovative activities of assessment, promotion and transfer for economic benefit. (h) Certification is the procedure by which official certification bodies or officially recognized certification bodies provide written or equivalent assurance that foods or food control systems conform to requirements. (i) Accreditation is the procedure by which a government agency having jurisdiction formally recognizes the competence of an inspection and/or certification body to provide inspection and certification services. (m) Organic food establishment refers to an entity, whether local or foreign, that produces fresh or processed organic food. (n) Organic input establishment refers to an entity, whether local or foreign that produces input acceptable for organic agriculture B. The origins and pioneers of organic agriculture B1. Early Development Sir Humphrey Davy and Justus von Liebig were the key founders of this theory and published their ideas in Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (Davy 1813) and Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology (von Liebig 1840). Their argument was that inorganic mineral fertilizers could replace manures and bring agriculture into the scientific fold, with resulting increases in production and efficiency. The agricultural revolution began in the 1840s and with it came the first commercial production of inorganic fertilizers. However, like many revolutions, it was not without mistakes and significant uptake of fertilizers did not occur until the start of World War Two (Grigg 1989). It was in the 1920s that individuals who were concerned about the direction agriculture was heading first started to speak out and to join together. Rudolph Steiner, the founder of the philosophy of ‘Anthroposophy’ gave his agricultural lectures in 1924. Although these lectures and other Steiner teachings were the foundation of biodynamic agriculture, which differs from organic Page 3 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture agriculture principally as it has spiritual, mystical and astrological aspects, they were prophetic in their criticism of industrial agriculture and in plotting an alternative course. The first organic certification and labelling system, ‘Demeter’, was created in 1924 because of Steiner’s actions (Rundgren 2002). During this time, Robert McCarrison, a distinguished scientist, was researching the vitality of the fighting men of India and why they lacked diseases common in the west. He promoted health as a positive concept of vitality rather than a negative form viewed as an absence of disease. Good health was based on a diet of wholesome food – mostly fresh plants and grains with modest amounts of meat, grown on land to which all manures were returned (i.e. following the ‘law of return’). McCarrison followed up his observations with dietary experiments on rats, feeding one group on the diet of the Indians and the other of the British poor. The rats on the Indian diet flourished, while the others suffered a range of diseases and negative sociological effects. This led McCarrison to expound the importance of a wholesome diet grown on soil fertilized with manures and other organic matter. Sir Albert Howard was also working in India in the 1920s on an experimental agricultural research institute he established. Howard was a highly capable scientist as well, and while his training was more than sufficient to understand the new chemical ideas, his upbringing on a Shropshire farm made him highly sceptical of the approach. He was a keen observer of the local peasant farmers and said that he learnt far more from them than from his scientific training. Howard undertook a wide range of activities including a highly successful plant breeding program and observed the effects of how forage was grown on the health of farm animals. This led him to believe in the inextricable linkages between the health of the soil and Overview of organic agriculture the health of the plants and animals fed by that soil. This lead to him adapting oriental methods of composting to Indian conditions which resulted in the ‘Indore process’ of composting which is now inextricably linked to his name. These experiences were distilled into his book The Waste Products of Agriculture (Howard 1931), which spread his message across many continents. B2. Beyond Europe: further evolution and new alliances It was the work and publications of people such as Howard, McCarrison and Steiner that influenced the next wave of organic pioneers. This second wave brought the organic movement into being, with the establishment of the early associations such as the Rodale Institute in the United States of America (USA), Soil and Health in New Zealand and the Soil Association in the United Kingdom (UK). The term ‘organic’ was first used in relation to farming by Northbourne (1940) (see above). In the UK, Lady Eve Balfour was setting up the ‘Haughley experiment’, which compared organic and non-organic production over the long term. She also wrote the highly influential The Living Soil (Balfour 1943), which Page 4 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture was partly informed by the Haughley experiment. She was also the first president and founding member of the Soil Association in 1946. Pre-dating both of these organisations was the Soil and Health Association in New Zealand, founded in 1942 by Dr Guy Chapman, a practicing dentist, originally under the name of the ‘Humic Compost Club’. In Switzerland, Hans and Maria Mueller were pioneering organic farming techniques. Herr Mueller was encouraged by the biodynamic agriculture of Steiner and developed the ‘organic– biological’ farming method in the 1950s. Hans-Peter Rusch, a medical doctor, microbiologist and good friend of Hans provided the scientific basis for Hans’s work in his book Bodenfruchtbarkeit [Soil Fertility] that linked soil microbiology with fertility (Rusch 1964). This movement became more formalised in the 1970s with the adoption of the trade mark Bioland, now the largest certifier in Germany (Haccius and Lünzer 2000). In the late 1930s in rural Pennsylvania, USA, J.I. Rodale was keen to learn about and practice organic agriculture. He quickly came to realise the importance of restoring and protecting the natural health of the soil to preserve and improve human health. In 1947 he founded the Soil and Health Foundation that later become The Rodale Institute. He was also responsible for a wide range of publications on health and farming and gardening organically, with a central message and philosophy of ‘healthy soil, equals healthy food, equals healthy people’. Independent developments were occurring in Japan. In 1936, Mokichi Okada began practicing ‘nature farming’. Nature farming includes spiritual and well as agronomic aspects with a view to improving humanity. It therefore has strong similarities to the biodynamic agriculture and anthroposophy of Rudolph Steiner. The Sekai Kyusei Kyo organisation was formed and continues to promote ‘Kyusei nature farming’ with experimental farms and offices located throughout South-East Asia. An offshoot group, the Mokichi Okada Association formed in 1980 with the aim of demonstrating the scientific validity of their farming methods (Setboonsarng and Gilman 1999). At about the same time as Okada was establishing his movement, Masanobu Fukuoka began a different approach to natural farming in Japan. With a background in microbiology and soil science, Fukuoka aimed to practice a simple form of agriculture, sometimes known as ‘do nothing farming’ (Setboonsarng and Gilman 1999). Like Okada, Fukuoka’s farming approach also had a spiritual underpinning (Fukuoka 1978). The continuation and spread of these movements highlights the importance of seeing organic agriculture as a global phenomenon, not simply a European one. While many of these organic pioneers’ ideas are still relevant to modern organic agriculture, there were a considerable number of pioneers whose political and religious views would be anathema to today’s environmentally minded, socially concerned, politically left-of-centre, organic supporters. Page 5 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture Many organic pioneers were significantly to the right of the political spectrum and strongly Christian, to the point of fundamentalism and evangelicalism. The politics, philosophy and religious motivations of these organic forerunners in the UK have been well documented by Conford (2001). The reason why the ideas of some organic pioneers are now foreign to the modern organic movement is that it underwent significant change and upheaval in the 1960s. The publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962) was a key turning point for, and the start of, both the modern organic and environmental movements. This change could well be considered a revolution and, at the least, a significant evolution of the organic movement. Indeed, many of the concerns and concepts of environmentalism and modern organic agriculture would be quite alien to many of the organic pioneers, just as the politics and religion of some pioneers are alien to most involved with the modern organic movement. A case could be argued that environmentalism saved the organic movement from obscurity as it had lost the post World War Two argument over the direction of agriculture and was in significant decline through the 1950s. So while there is a continuum of thought and membership from the earliest days to the present, the modern organic movement is radically different from its original forms. It now has environmental sustainability at its core in addition to the founders concerns for healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people. Silent Spring opened the world’s eyes to the damage that pesticides and other toxins were doing to the global environment. As such, Silent Spring brought a whole new raft of arguments against industrial farming in addition to those that the organic movement had been pushing for many decades. The 1960s, in which Silent Spring was published, were also a time of significant social change and upheaval. New modes of political and philosophical thought were emerging and being hotly debated. Many of these were also highly influential within the changing organic movement. Examples of these ideas include Limits to Growth (Meadows et al. 1972) that considered the issue of the growth of the human population and the global economy and asked questions such as: what will happen if growth in the world’s population continues unchecked? What will be the environmental consequences if economic growth continues at its current pace? What can be done to ensure a human economy that provides sufficiently for all and that fits within the physical limits of the Earth? Another was E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (1974) with its many radical ideas, including the concept of sacrificing economic growth for a more fulfilling working life and making quality of life the central goal of economics. Schumacher was also a president of The Soil Association. In the 1970s, organic agriculture re-emerged as an ecoagriculture and the strengthening of existing organic organisations and the founding of new ones occurred, many of which were focused on the process of certification of farmers Page 6 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture and growers. Although there was growing interest in organic agriculture, it was still clearly outside of mainstream agriculture and national politics, and while members of the movement worked tirelessly, they gained little traction with authorities. The levels of self organisation, however, were increasing rapidly, from individual groups working alone to increasingly coordinated action. The formation of a formal global network is one of the landmarks by which social and political movements can say they have come of age. For the organic movement this was the founding of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in 1972, which to this day, remains the only global organic non-governmental organization (NGO). Its creation and continuation was no easy task. Like many other organic organisations in its earlier years, it depended heavily on vast amounts of goodwill, the hard work of mostly unpaid people and its financial security was often in the balance. It has grown from a body that national governments ignored or argued against, to one that now commands the respect of governments and intergovernmental organisations. IFOAM’s mission is ‘leading, uniting and assisting the organic movement in its full diversity’ [emphasis added] (Woodward and Vogtmann 2004, IFOAM 2005). The main aims of the organisation are to: provide authoritative information about organic agriculture, promote its worldwide application and exchange knowledge; represent the organic movement at international policy making forums; make an agreed international guarantee of organic quality a reality; maintain the Organic Guarantee System, setting international organic standards and certification procedures and auditing member certification organisations to these standards; and build a common agenda for all stakeholders in the organic sector. Explosive growth in organic agriculture occurred in the 1980s. The reasons for this are numerous and many were outside the control of the movement. The intensification of agriculture had become a national political issue, fuelled by public concerns such as the increasing destruction of valued features of the farmed landscape, the intensification of livestock production (e.g. battery hens) and food scares (e.g. bacterial contamination) which resulted in the public first discovering how industrial food production and processing systems worked, many of which they found shocking and repugnant. Organic food offered an alternative, resulting in considerable increases in organic food consumption during food scares. Increasing wealth and disposable income in some developed countries resulted in organic food becoming highly ‘fashionable’ among higher socioeconomic groups. This is highly ironic, as the purchasing and consumption of organic food as a symbol of social status is an anathema to the philosophy and principles of organic agriculture (Guthman 2000). Page 7 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture B3. Organic agriculture goes global Beyond the industrialised countries of western Europe and North America, a large growth in organic agriculture was occurring during the 1980s in parts of Oceania, Central and South America, Asia and Africa. Many of these regions had existing indigenous farming systems that could be readily adapted to organic agriculture, the export earnings were valuable, labour was available, and some places received support from, for example, their governments, aid agencies and NGOs. Although there are many local and regional movements around the world that are similar to (or compatible with) organic agriculture, it is the latter which has become the most well-known and widely adopted complementary farming system. The other systems show how different societies develop their own approaches to low-external-input or non-chemical farming depending on their world view and the natural, intellectual and economic resources available to them. These indigenous systems themselves have enormous value in their own right (Peroni and Hanazaki 2002) and, where appropriate, should be maintained and supported. However, where the choices for farmers are changing, becoming more market orientated, for example, then a hybrid of local farming methods and organic agriculture may offer a viable alternative. Some of the incentives and constraints for farmers adopting organic agriculture in less developed countries are listed in Table 1. Table 1. Incentives and constraints for farmers adopting organic agriculture in less developed countries (after Parrott and Marsden 2002 and Walaga 2000) Incentives Constraints Disillusion with Green Revolution Lack of knowledge about organic technologies agriculture The inaccessibility or high cost of Green Lack of economic and political advocacy Revolution technologies Population pressures encourage Organic agriculture valorises indigenous intensification knowledge The high cost of certification by foreign The influence of the environmental and organisations development movements Low literacy levels in rural areas make Premiums and market opportunities recordkeeping a problem Lack of trade liberalisation in some countries prevents development of exports The traditional farming systems of Central and South America have been well studied over many years (Gliessman 1985) and the principles and practices observed in these systems have been used to develop the concept and practice of ‘agroecology’, a scientific approach to low input farming (Vandermeer et al. 1998). The emphasis on enabling biological and ecological processes, using existing Page 8 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture resources and trading locally in the local farming system is well suited to organic agriculture. There has been a high level of adoption of organic agriculture in Central and South America in terms of certified land area and number of farms, with Argentina having the second highest amount of land under organic production in the world and Mexico having the greatest number of farms. With a large agricultural base, diverse environments, good labour supplies and close proximity to North America, many organic growers in Central and South America have been successful, principally in the export markets. However, socioeconomic constraints such as poverty and land tenure have shaped the process of adoption and adaptation of organic agriculture (Parrott and Marsden 2002). Although Argentina has 3 million hectares of land under organic production (Yussefi 2004), 74% of that land is owned by 5% of the organic farmers (Lernoud and Piovano 2004). Remove those few large farms and the area of organic land would rank a more modest sixth globally, between Brazil and Uruguay. Beginning in the 1980s, the Argentinian organic movement has developed strong formal certification processes, good export links and has received valuable government support. In a show of diversity, Argentina has also eagerly adopted genetically modified crops, having the world’s second largest area of such crops after the USA, with 10 million hectares grown in 2000 (Coffman 2001) and 14.2 million hectares in 2003 (Human Genome Project Information 2004). Like Argentina, Mexico exports most of its organic produce, 70% of which is coffee (Tovar and Cruz 2004). Smallholders make up about 98% of the 28,000 certified organic growers in Mexico, plus a small number of large fincas (estates) growing crops such as cocoa, sugar and coffee. Apart from an early biodynamic pioneer producing certified coffee in 1967, organic agriculture began to emerge in the 1980s and 1990s with the aid of some government support and easy access to US markets. However, Mexican organic producers still rely on overseas certifying agencies for exporting their goods and suffer from a lack of state support for research and development, a poorly developed domestic market, as well the dependence on foreign companies for marketing. In Cuba, the collapse of the Soviet regime in the early 1990s caused subsidies for conventional farm inputs to cease and the main markets to disappear, forcing the nation to seek sources of raw materials and alternative markets (Kilcher 2001). In response, Cuba developed several programs to promote organic agriculture including rearing biological control agents, producing bulk compost, restructuring state farms and developing training and certification frameworks. Although the country has not entirely moved away from intensive, export-oriented conventional agriculture based on plantations, Cuba produces 65% of its rice and 50% of its fresh vegetables organically. Several recognised complementary agricultural systems have also been developed in Asia (Setboonsarng and Gilman 1999). Page 9 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture During the Later Vedic Period (1,000 BCE–600 BCE) in India, a series of three works codified a system of agricultural principles and practices in great detail. This indigenous knowledge is still applied today in parts of India and acts as an aid for farmers converting to organic agriculture (Mahale and Sorée 2002). Two very worthwhile aspects of integrated farming that were traditionally overlooked by the organic movement are aquaculture and mariculture. Yet in Asia some ecological farmers have extensive knowledge about these subjects that can be readily integrated with organic agriculture methods. Despite a long history of sustainable agricultural production in China, modernisation of farming practices during the 20th century led to the abandonment of customary methods and knowledge. This trend changed during the 1980s when China began carrying out a research and demonstration program for ecological agriculture. By 1990, they had entered the international organic market with tea certified by a foreign agency, in 1994 the Organic Food Development Center was established and the following year a set of national organic standards was published (Zong 2002). China is unusual because the introduction of organic agriculture has been a top-down process (Zong 2002), unlike the experience of most countries where organic agriculture has been a farmer/consumer-based movement, initially championed from the bottom up. The other example, Cuba, is also a socialist state. Many parts of Africa experience severe poverty and face some of the most difficult conditions for agricultural production. Developing solutions is an ongoing problem, and it is likely that many strategies will be needed, each customised to the needs of the targeted community. Organic agriculture has been adopted in few African countries. For example, the establishment of the Kenyan Institute of Organic Farming in 1987 increased the transfer of information about organic methods and, although the government was not initially supportive, the country now has the largest number of IFOAM members of any African nation (Parrott and Marsden 2002). Countries in the west of Africa such as Senegal and Burkina Faso have also established NGOs that set local certification standards to reduce external certification costs, provide training in organic food processing, labelling, packaging and storage and establish local and distant markets for selling organic produce (Anobah 2000). Australia has the largest (10 million hectares) and Argentina the second largest (3 million hectares) area of organic farmland in the world (Yussefi 2004). A major portion of the organic land in these countries is used for extensive, low- input grazing on relatively few individual farms. The high level of adoption of organic agriculture by graziers in these countries suggests that organic pastoral production was technically easier to implement than organic broadacre cropping. Both countries have well-developed export markets for organic grains (Halpin and Brueckner 2004, Lernoud and Piovano 2004), so differences in market size and accessibility are unlikely to be a limiting factor for organic cropping. Page 10 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture B4. The modern organic movement Scientists became increasingly interested and aware of organic agriculture in the 1980s, even those who were not supportive of alternative agricultural systems. They found the academic climate and funding sources were more amenable to its study than in previous decades, which resulted in a rash of research, much of which, unfortunately, was comparisons of organic and non- organic agriculture, rather than research designed to assist organic producers or underpin organic principles and practices (Lockeretz 2002). By the end of the decade, the level of interest in organic agriculture and the volume of information compiled about organic methods had become sufficient to enable the highly successful publication of the landmark book Organic Farming by Nicolas Lampkin (1990). Trends that began in the 1970s, and accelerated through the 1980s, continued to flourish during the 1990s and into the new millennium. Demand and production continued to grow exponentially around the world, often at 20–30% per year. Formal political and legislative recognition was achieved. Normally this was started by bringing organic agriculture under legislative control. Following this were intergovernmental agreements to facilitate international organic trade, mostly by creating systems by which certification standards in the exporting country were shown to be equivalent to those of the importing country, a system that parallels and duplicates IFOAM’s Organic Guarantee System. Significant political traction was also being made in international/intergovernmental agencies such as the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Public concerns about food and its production systems continued with further ‘food scares’ such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the UK and the emergence into public awareness of ‘genetic engineering that in parts of Asia, Australasia and particularly Europe became a highly charged political issue. Science increasingly became a tool to demonstrate the benefits of organic agriculture and the problems with industrial agriculture (Pretty et al. 2000). This helped organic organisations make the case for much closer cooperation between themselves and other environmentally aligned organisations, for example nature conservation groups. It also showed that useful research could be carried out on organic farms. Since the 1980s, numerous organic research centres and associations have been established internationally; taken active roles in conducting new research in the agronomic, environmental and social sciences; have documented and published findings to fill the strong demand for information; and provided extension and training to farmers and advisers. Several NGOs and companies began to perform an auxiliary function to the certifying agencies by carrying out independent reviews of products intended for use in certified organic production, handling and processing. The Organic Materials Review Institute (www.omri.org) and Pesticide Action Network North America (www.panna. org) are examples of such organisations. Page 11 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture By the late 1990s increasing concerns were being raised about organic agriculture following in the footsteps of industrial agriculture and losing its vision (e.g. Woodward et al. 1996). Examples of this are the huge growth in sales though supermarkets and increasing amounts of organic produce being transported large distances to satisfy demand in affluent countries. This concern is explored further in Ikerd (see Special topic 3). These concerns have resulted in a refocusing on the neglected issue of social equity (e.g. ensuring that farmers are paid a fair price for their produce). One outcome of this is the linkages formed between the Fair Trade and the organic movement (Browne et al. 2000). There is active debate on introducing Fair Trade requirements for European organic producers that have, to date, only been used by farmers in the third world. A practical example of reforming the links that existed between organic producers and consumers in the 1960s and 1970s are the rapid increase in ‘farmers markets’ in the USA and UK where traditional produce markets have been resurrected by requiring stall holders to be both local and only sell goods they have produced (Vanzetti and Wynen 2002). In 2004, 80% of organically managed land is located in only ten countries, with more than 50% in two countries, Australia and Argentina (Yussefi 2004). However, the most intensive adoption of organic agriculture has occurred in western Europe, especially in the German speaking countries and Scandinavia, with three countries achieving at least 10% of organic agriculture and five more countries with over 5% organic agriculture (Table 2). The highest numbers of organic farms are reported to be in many non-European countries, although some European countries also have over 15,000 organic farms (Table 3). Most consumption takes place in affluent countries. The global organic market is estimated to be worth about US$23 billion from organic food and drinks, of which North America collects about half, Europe gets nearly half also, while only 3% of revenues are shared between all other countries (Sahota 2004). Traditional staple food products such as grains, fruit, vegetables, meat and diary products are most commonly grown, although demand for cash crops such as sugar, coffee and wine is also increasing. Many governments today have accepted the arguments that there are problems with conventional agriculture and that organic agriculture offers a viable solution to many of these. This has resulted in policies and government actions that support the development of organic agriculture along two main pathways (Dabbert et al. 2001): 1. for the marketplace, or 2. for public-good environmental outcomes. There are a numerous areas where agricultural policies have the potential to influence the adoption and success of organic agriculture. Page 12 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture Table 2. Percentage of national agricultural land under organic management (Yussefi 2004) Country Percentage (%) Liechtenstein 26.4 Austria 11.6 Switzerland 10.0 Italy 8.0 Finland 7.0 Denmark 6.7 Sweden 6.1 Czech Republic 5.1 United Kingdom 4.2 Germany 4.1 A key policy role for many governments is defining organic agriculture in law and creating enforcement mechanisms, often by using existing non- governmental certification agencies. Examples of this are the NOP in the USA and EU Regulations 2092/1991 and 1804/1999 (for crop and animal production respectively). Laws such as these are often as much for the protection of consumers as for the advancement of organic agriculture. Table 3. Number of farms under organic management (Yussefi 2004) Country No. of farms Mexico 53,577 Italy 49,489 Indonesia 45,000 Uganda 33,900 Tanzania 26,986 Peru 23,057 Brazil 19,003 Austria 18,576 Turkey 18,385 Spain 17,751 A second policy role for many governments is the provision of direct subsidies for conversion and, in some cases, ongoing production. The use of cash subsidies for using certain farming practices is a common feature of agricultural production in many countries. In Europe especially, such incentives have been used for several years to encourage growers to convert to organic agriculture. Although improvements in the relative competitiveness of organic agriculture have been found and are expected to continue, it is unclear if direct payments have been the most efficient tool for improving environmental performance of farmers (OECD 2003). More recent government policies have actively assisted and promoted organic agriculture as a means of addressing the problems of agriculture. In the UK, the Department for Environment Food and Page 13 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture Rural Affairs (DEFRA) developed the ‘action plan’ to ensure stable and strategic growth for organic food production (DEFRA 2002). Organic agriculture is now widely recognized by the public and governments as a valid alternative to conventional agriculture and is a source of ideas and approaches that conventional agriculture can adopt to make it more sustainable. However, the process of reaching this position has resulted in organic agriculture taking on some of the practices of conventional agriculture that are at odds with organic principles. A groundswell has started that is attempting to focus the organic movement on addressing these concerns; however, many of these off-farm issues, for example, food miles, may be much harder to change than what has been achieved on the farm. Table 4. Production Area per Region Total 5% Organic Production Area (2016) Region Agriculture Agriculture Actual (ha) Percentage Area (ha) Target (ha) RFO CAR 137,638.42 6,881.92 26,128.71 379.67% RFO 1 218,652.94 10,932.65 2,582.48 23.62% RFO 2 478,720.96 23,936.05 16,789.99 70.15% RFO 3 440,901.95 22,045.10 39,466.81 179.03% RFO 4A 497,500.86 24,875.04 9,485.59 38.13% RFO 4B 445,587.94 22,279.40 10,627.99 47.70% RFO 5 765,824.08 38,291.20 17,555.00 45.85% RFO 6 460,456.04 23,022.80 655.44 2.85% NCR RFO 7 292,571.40 14,628.57 2,615.00 17.88% RFO 8 453,606.87 22,680.34 5,435.35 23.97% RFO 9 448,181.29 22,409.06 21,500.00 95.94% RFO 10 532,889.36 26,644.47 3,253.77 12.21% RFO 11 571,236.45 28,561.82 34,262.18 119.96% RFO 12 618,117.00 30,905.85 44,168.05 142.91% RFO 13 461,405.18 23,070.26 105,498.92 457.29% ARMM 346,524.82 17,326.24 3,362.00 19.40% Page 14 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture Table 5. Production Volume per Region REGION VOLUME OF PRODUCTION (MT) CAR 106,022.23 REGION 1 11,104.66 REGION 2 388.15 REGION 3 233,471 REGION 4A 365 REGION 4B 567.65 REGION 5 67,960 REGION 6 811.122 REGION 7 8,977 REGION 8 24,563.33 REGION 9 75,000 REGION 10 5,166.37 REGION 11 3,210.31 REGION 12 20,389.577 REGION 13 27,163.64 ARMM 321 updated as of December 31, 2016 C. Organic Farming in the Philippines Situation of Organic Agriculture in the Philippines Over-all Philippine agriculture contributes 17 percent to the gross domestic product of the country, employing 33 percent of the country’s labor force. The sector accounts for more than half or an estimated 66 percent of the country’s poorest. The deteriorating condition of the environment has contributed to increasing vulnerability of the broad-spectrum of agriculture sector particularly to extreme weather events. Predominance of chemical intensive farming has contributed to at least 33 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Profile of Organic Farms and Products Compared to many Asian countries, the organic agriculture sector in the Philippines is still in its formative years. Production of organic agriculture products remains marginal with less than one percent of the country’s agricultural land devoted to organic farming. International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) estimated that in 2004 only 3,500 hectares in the country were under organic management. These estimates represent a more than three-fold increase in production areas certified under organic management. Most recent estimates from the IFOAM and FiBLindicate that in 2006 there were 35,000 organic farms in the country with a cumulative production area certified under organic management of 14,140 hectares or 0.12 percent of the total Philippine agricultural lands. It must Page 15 of 16  AGRIC 2110 - Introduction to Organic Agriculture be noted, however, that the available data only capture farms that have been third-party certified and do not reflect the broader population of organic farming practitioners who have not sought certification. Most common organic agricultural products, mainly for domestic consumption, include well milled white rice and semi-polished red and brown rice, vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices, some livestock and poultry. In 2009, the Organic Certification Center of the Philippines (OCCP) estimated the organic rice production area at 7,066 hectares with production volume of 3.8 million kilograms. Production area for organic fruits and vegetables which include papaya, bananas, mangoes and watermelons, was estimated at 119 hectares with production volume of 660,770 kilograms. On the other hand, organic agriculture products, mainly for export to the United States, Japan and Western Europe, include muscovado sugar, bananas and coconut oil. Again the OCCP estimated in 2009 that the total production area devoted to organic sugar was at 122 hectares with production volume of 10,000 kilograms. Area planted with certified organic banana was estimated at 509 hectares and for organic coconut at 64 hectares. IV. References Paul Kristiansen, Acram Taji and John Reganold. 2006.dORGANIC AGRICULTURE A Global Perspective. Published by CSIRO PUBLISHING, 2006, 484pp. Retrieved from https://orgprints.org/14043/1/14043.pdf on April 15, 2019. Organic Agriculture. Food and Organic Agriculture Organization of the United States. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq1/en/. on June 14, 2019. Republic Act 10068 (Organic Agriculture Act of 2010) and its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). Retrieved from http://www.bafs.da.gov.ph/accreditation/assets/documents/RA10068_IRR. pdf on April 15, 2019. The National Organic Agriculture Program. Retrieved from http://organic.da.gov.ph/images/Documents/NOAPDocument.pdf on April 16, 2019. National Organic Agriculture Program. Retrieved from http://organic.da.gov.ph/index.php/transparency/2016-12-02-08-46- 57/2016-12-02-08-50-19/production-volume# on April 16, 2019. Page 16 of 16