Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 18.2 Benefits and opportunities for organic
agriculture
Provision of ecological services, such as crop protection, yield stability and system
resilience.
Reduced chemical residues in food and the environment.
Few strongly negative environmental impacts.
Economic performance is often equivalent to conventional farming.
High standards of animal welfare.
Reliable and credible standard-setting processes and certification schemes.
Dynamic review of policies and standards.
Strong consumer demand and brand recognition.
Indigenous knowledge is valued.
Potential for cooperative rural and regional development.
concluding chapter is more concerned with documenting and reviewing current knowledge,
identifying strengths and weaknesses, and applying that information to the immediate chal-
lenges ahead. Opportunities for supporting the continuing development of the organic
movement through cross fertilisation of technologies and conceptual approaches in the areas
of supply chains and farming systems are discussed.
Opportunities and challenges
Organic farming has attracted considerable attention from those who see it as a panacea to
those who see it as ideological nonsense. A more humble responsibility for the organic movement
may be to serve as role model for a farming system in which values other than financial are cul-
tivated (see
Chapters
8
and
14
). Organic farming asks how we ought to relate to each other and
our natural environment (see
Special
topic
3
). The values of the organic movement are not
esoteric, but are based on observation and common sense: treat livestock well, use resources
sparingly, use the least harmful method, nature is inherently valuable and so on. Food security
depends upon personal relationships of integrity and trust among farmers, farm workers, sup-
pliers, consumers and others up and down the agricultural supply chain (see
Special
topic
3
),
and integrity and trust have been fundamental to organic agriculture's success.
There are many other role models across the spectrum of agricultural systems, such as con-
servation tillage, permaculture and traditional farming systems, but organic farming has
emerged as one of the best known alternative farming systems developed in response to the
shortcomings of mainstream agriculture. Many of the key benefits and opportunities for
organic agriculture (Box 18.2) are suitable areas for the organic movement to show leadership
and innovation, including assurance and auditing procedures, rural and regional development
and low cost agricultural systems relying on biological and ecological processes.
A range of challenges that were highlighted in other chapters are listed in Box 18.3. Some of
these challenges are in conf lict with each other (e.g. global harmonisation versus local adapta-
tion) and some challenges are also opportunities (e.g. dynamic review of policies and stand-
