Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 18.3 Challenges for organic agriculture
Maintaining sustainability in the global economy: balancing organic principles with
commercial imperatives.
Maintaining flexible organic standards and certification processes to address issues such as:
• nature conservation and regeneration;
• equitable, affordable and flexible access to certification services;
• responsible labour relations and land tenure arrangements;
• animal welfare;
• new inputs such as 'natural' biocides, soil amendments and GMOs; and
• incomplete or unscientific basis for including/excluding materials from organic
standards.
Pursuing international harmonisation of standards and certification.
Developing locally applicable agronomic solutions to production constraints, such as
weeds, animal health and soil fertility.
Expanding research activities in many disciplines (particularly beyond Europe and North
America) and foster the integration of knowledge.
Preserving food quality while trying to increase productivity.
Educating and training at all levels to build capacity, infrastructure and networks.
Inadequacies in regulatory and marketing structures (e.g. labelling).
Excessive consumer prices and inconsistent quality and availability.
Establishing and maintaining credibility and professionalism.
ards). Specific local agronomic requirements can also create pressure to modify standards. For
example, phosphorus (P) fertilisers allowed under the certification standards are unable to
supply adequate P in the inherently deficient soils in parts of southern Australia. Consequently,
the restriction on citrate-soluble superphosphate has been questioned (Penfold 2000).
The question of whether organic food is better for human health than conventional food is
central in the minds of organic consumers (see
Chapter
11
). Yet the research indicates that no
definitive nutritional differences have been found (see
Chapter
13
). Reviews in several coun-
tries all concluded that there is no evidence for any direct health benefits associated with the
consumption of organic foods. These reports also concluded that there were no health risks
associated with organic food. Differences were reported for a range of nutritional characteris-
tics, but there is no consistency across the literature.
Despite the lack of nutritional differences in the comparative review, examination of large
data sets showed that organically grown foods consistently had about one-third of the pesti-
cide residues in conventionally grown foods (Baker
et
al
. 2002). There are also numerous
examples in the broader research literature that showed links between food production
methods and food quality, and that these differences are large enough to inf luence consumer
health (see
Chapter 13
). By gaining an understanding of the relationships between production
methods and food quality, improvements can be made in the quality of produce from a system,
whether it is organic or conventional. However, there are limitations in the experimental
approach of some of the studies, such as confounded designs, inadequate time frames and not
targeting aspects where differences are most likely. Brandt and Mølgaard note the scientific
