Organic Farmers: Contributing to the Resilience of the Food System? - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 183

offer in the present and future in terms of its contribution to the possible pathways
to adaptation and flexibility it offers to agricultural practices in general.
In this chapter, New Zealand agriculture is used to illustrate three theses:
the contribution of organic farming is more apparent when it is studied in a
farming sector context rather than in isolation; organic farmers and their farms
add to the resilience of the food system; and, when organic farmers are seen
as “good farmers” they have more influence on others. New Zealand is a small
country, highly dependent on exporting agricultural and horticultural products, but
geographically positioned some distance from its markets. Hence, the government
encourages the production of quality niche products for which it can obtain a market
premium. However, many of its products presently are commodities that can be
manufactured in some way within New Zealand and shipped in large volumes. Since
the mid-1980s, the New Zealand government has pursued neo-liberal market-led,
user-pay policies. Primary production is not subsidized nor is environmental welfare
encouraged by subsidies. Instead, environmental welfare is regulated by industry,
local or national government, or as part of a market-led audit system associated
with the production of particular products such as kiwifruit and lamb for specific
buyers such as supermarkets. Commercial large-scale organic farming is relatively
recent and it is export oriented. The government has invested very few resources
in organics - either through regulation (until the recent Ministry of Agriculture
and Forestry (MAF) arrangement for AsureQuality 2 to audit organic farms) or
through scientific research. This context makes New Zealand an interesting and
useful exemplar for the comparison of agricultural resilience and sustainability
across some of the different agriculture sectors and the role of organics within them.
We seek to demonstrate that when organic practitioners are considered as part
of a community, an agricultural sector, a supply chain and a nation, we can better
recognize the contribution they and their practices make to the resilience of the
production system. In addition, the impact of their performance on the sector is
likely to be greater when their organic practices are seen to provide a model of
farming (and farmers) when organic farmers are seen as “good farmers” in their
local communities and in a particular agricultural sector.
As uncertainty and change now and in the future affects the world's food
production, the provision of a sustainable and resilient supply of safe, good quality
food in sufficient quantity may be best achieved by maximizing the contribution of
organic practices (Milestad and Darnhofer 2003 ). Others also see a role for organics
in differing pathways to sustainability. De Schutter ( 2010 ), the Special Rapporteur
on the Right to Food to the United Nations, and supporter of agro-ecology presents
the use of organic fertilizer as the ultimate goal, but one that may not be reached
without the use of subsidized inorganic fertilizers in poor countries. Pretty et al.
( 2010 ) support the use of both GMOs and organics if agriculture is to be intensified
enough to feed the world while being sustainable.
2 AsureQuality is commercial company 100 % owned by the New Zealand government to provide
food safety and biosecurity services to the food and primary production sectors, http://www.