40 YEARS LEADING, UNITING AND ASSISTING
THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT WORLDWIDE
The IFOAM World Board’s statement on the
role of Organic Agriculture in the transition to a
sustainable world
Draft version. For consultation of IFOAM members and the public, January 2013
1.
2.
Executive Summary .................................................................................................. 1
Background ............................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Context and purpose of this paper .......................................................................... 2
2.2 Definition and use of the term Sustainability ........................................................... 2
2.3 Historical and present visions of the Organic Movement ........................................ 3
2.4 The Organic Landmarks: The Definition, Principles, Scope and Positions of
Organic Agriculture and its Movement ................................................................... 4
2.5 Recent mandates by the Organic Movement .......................................................... 5
3. The IFOAM World Board’s Position on Sustainability Development ..................... 5
3.1 The Strategy of the Organic Movement: Continuous Improvement and Scaling
up in a Balanced Manner ....................................................................................... 5
3.2 IFOAM and SOAAN’s contributions ........................................................................ 7
4. Final Statement.......................................................................................................... 8
1.
Executive Summary
The IFOAM World Board is leading a discussion and process in the Organic Movement with
the aim of positioning Organic Agriculture as a holistic, sustainable farming system that is
committed to further developing its practices in order to better meet both traditional and new
challenges. Based on a motion tabled by the IFOAM General Assembly in 2011, this
statement serves as an explanation of the World Board’s understanding of the issue and as a
strategy for the IFOAM and the global Organic Movement.
The attempt to make agriculture sustainable is hardly challenged. However, understanding of
the term sustainability and resulting strategy proposals vary substantially across the world.
The Organic Movement proposes an alternative to conventional green revolution type
strategies. It sees Organic Agriculture as a farming system based on traditions and on the
scientific discipline of agroecology that improves the sustainability of agroecosystems. It is
based on the four Principles of Organic Agriculture and aims at functional integrity of its
systems.
To achieve the vision of a worldwide adoption of sound systems, Organic Agriculture must a)
expand and b) improve its own sustainability. Development priorities towards expansion as
well as sustainability improvements need to be balanced. Organic farming has to remain
feasible and affordable on the one hand and credible and trustworthy on the other hand. The
higher price of organic products is a key element in balancing development priorities.
Excessively high production requirements, driven by too fast standard developments, result
-2in too high prices, that (additional) consumers may not be ready to pay. If the pace of
sustainability development, driven by innovations and standards, is too slow, Organic
Agriculture will come under public pressure and lose its position as a leader and credible
alternative to conventional production. The optimal balance needs to be defined locally. The
higher the uptake of Organic Agriculture and the less wealthy a society, the less prominent
price premiums can be.
IFOAM, together with its allies in SOAAN1 and Affiliates, leads and supports a process that
aims to maximize the sustainability impact through the adoption of organic farming. SOAAN
is developing the ‘Best Practice Reference’, a document that describes the vision for
sustainable agriculture practices in great detail. The Best Practice Reference is subject to
approval by the IFOAM General Assembly. Further support documents are planned.
2.
2.1
Background
Context and purpose of this paper
Now more than ever, our planet is suffering the consequences of ill-conceived strategies.
Poverty, malnutrition and hunger, climate change, genetic diversity loss, ecocide, land and
water degradations, seed industry concentration and land grabbing are a few of the
phenomena to which the world must find effective answers.
Agriculture is both root of and solution to the world’s environmental, climate and social
problems. Industrial food production is a key cause of environmental and social harm and
needs urgently to be reduced in terms of its negative impact. One of the most promising
solutions are smaller-scale, ecological food production systems, currently practiced by
millions of small-scale food producers, whom if supported can substantially increase the
availability of food, eliminate hunger, increase equity and reverse environmental degradation.
These systems currently deliver food for 70%2 of the world’s peoples and, if supported and
protected, could provide more. Often they are biodiverse and organic following
agroecological practices.
The need for sustainability in agriculture is almost undisputed. Creating an affordable,
sustainable, economically sound and socially acceptable food future for everyone is a widely
agreed goal. However, disagreement can be found in how to best define sustainability and
probably more important, in how to achieve sustainability.
This IFOAM World Board has developed this document against the backdrop of intensive
debates within the Organic Movement 3 as well as external debates that heavily criticize
unsustainable organic practices and strategies4. The World Board would like to follow up on
IFOAM General Assembly decisions and explain the IFOAM strategy. This statement aims at
explaining the organic movement’s commitment to improving and expanding Organic
Agriculture globally in its diversity of farming practices, value-chain approaches and
guarantee systems.
2.2
Definition and use of the term Sustainability
The global Organic Movement, represented by IFOAM, understands the term “Sustainability”
as defined by the UN Brundtland commission in 1987: sustainable development is
1
Sustainable Organic Agriculture Action Network, SOAAN. A broad alliance initiated by IFOAM in
2012.
2 http://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-will-feed-us
3 e.g. IFOAM General Assembly sustainability motion 57 in 2011, BioFach main theme 2012, debates
by organic stakeholders such as the International Association of Partnership or the Leading Organic
Alliance.
4 e.g. debates in the media and in international conferences such as Rio+20.
-3development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.” The Organic Movement also agrees with the
statement made by the Earth Charter that “a sustainable global society is founded on respect
for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.” Moreover, the
Organic Movement integrates all three dimensions of sustainability (Environment, Economy,
Social) in its approaches and also includes the more recently suggested dimensions
(Cultural, Governance) in its understanding of Sustainable Agriculture.
The term sustainable agriculture is widely used not only by organic stakeholders but also by
many defenders of conventional, industrialized agriculture, making it no surprise that
common understanding of the term varies substantially. One can differentiate between three
schools of sustainable agriculture. The “food sufficiency school” positions sustainability as a
question of sufficient food production. This school is represented by modern industrialized
agriculture. The “stewardship school” considers sustainability as respecting ecological
balances. Environmentalists represent this school. The “sustainability as community school”
embraces not only ecological concerns but also vital rural cultures and holistic systems.
Modern organic farming belongs to this school. 5
Based on this analysis, there are two overall concepts for sustainability in agriculture:
“resource sufficiency” and “functional integrity”. The first is an “accounting” approach that
examines how to fulfill present and future human needs for food.
Under the ‘‘functional integrity’’ perspective, humans are considered an integrated part of
nature from an ecological viewpoint. This perspective builds on a systemic approach where
our relationship with nature is understood as a socio-ecological system, which includes
crucial elements and properties that must be regenerated and reproduced over time in order
to keep the system sustainable. Sustainability under the functional integrity perspective is
more than sustaining or keeping the level of natural, social and economic capitals. It includes
ethical aspects and not only looks at consequences for the future but also for present times.
For example, low salaries for farm laborers or neglecting animal welfare using inhumane
slaughtering practices may not compromise opportunities for future generations but are
highly unethical and touch on the functional integrity of the system. The functional integrity
perspective has strong similarities with the four IFOAM principles of Organic Agriculture6.
Hence, this is the way the Organic Movement interprets sustainability.
2.3
Historical and present visions of the Organic Movement
Organic pioneers - persons and movements - in many parts of the world based their
messages on the traditional ways of farming. They were critical of agriculture policies of the
20th century, which promised increased yields and higher short-term profits, but were
unsustainable as they had negative external effects on the environment, society and future
generations. Based on the study and analysis of traditional societies, organic pioneers
created an alternative farming system that has been shown to work in harmony with the
environment. Their ideas were subsequently further developed by organic farmers, the
organic value chain and its support sectors. The growth of the organic world, particularly
starting in the 1990’s, was mostly triggered by a growing awareness among consumers that
translated into an increased demand for organically labeled products. Organic Agriculture
has been changing and has managed to keep up with demand thanks to innovations,
institutional developments, capacity building, public communication and an early and clear
definition given through participative standards development and certification processes. The
initial idea developed by the pioneers that sees organic as a holistic farming system and an
alternative to the industrialization of agriculture has remained unchanged.
5
Halberg, N. 2012. Assessment of the environmental sustainability of organic farming: Definitions,
indicators and the major challenges. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92:
6 see http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/principles/index.html
-4The past decade has seen extensive discussions on the values and approaches in Organic
Agriculture. The value of naturalness was put in the foreground, which means respect for
nature in the relationship between humans and nature. From this, three approaches to
Organic Agriculture were identified: a) The “no-chemical approach” using natural rather than
synthetic agriculture inputs; b) the “ecological approach” basing itself on the self regulatory
ability of the (agro-) ecological systems and c) the “integrity approach” putting the nature of
every living organism in the center.7 The discussion culminated in the agreement on the four
IFOAM Principles of Organic Agriculture: Health, Ecology, Fairness and Care. 8
Today, the Organic Movement sees Organic Agriculture as a farming system based on
traditions and on the scientific discipline of agroecology. This discipline focuses on improving
the sustainability of agroecosystems by mimicking nature instead of industry and follows a
concept involving the ecological and social intensification of biological processes. The
present vision of the Organic Movement is the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially
and economically sound systems, based on the Principles of Organic Agriculture. Its goals
are:
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a sustainable organic production, processing, trade and consumption;
a full coverage of organic production, processing, trade and consumption;
a powerful Organic Movement of capable and enthusiastic actors;
an improvement of the organic and non-organic world through the organic lighthouse;
the uptake of organic solutions for global challenges.
2.4
The Organic Landmarks: The Definition, Principles, Scope and
Positions of Organic Agriculture and its Movement
Positioning organic as a holistic system heading towards sustainability is not completely new.
IFOAM has been defining so-called Organic Landmarks9 for a long time. All of these
documents were compiled using the experience and guidance of the IFOAM members and
by taking a diversity of perspectives into account.
The definition of Organic Agriculture reads as follows: Organic Agriculture is a production
system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological
processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs
with adverse effects. Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to
benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all
involved.
The organic approach to sustainability is based on IFOAM’s four Principles of Organic
Agriculture, related to health, ecology, fairness and care.
IFOAM regards any system that uses organic methods and is based on the Principles of
Organic Agriculture as “Organic Agriculture” and any farmers that employs such practices
and such systems as an “organic farmer” regardless of whether the products are marketed
as organic or not. Organic products may be third party certified including group certification,
they may be participatory guaranteed, they may be based on a direct farmer-consumer
relationship or they may be simply without guarantee system, depending on the particular
legal and market situation of the farmer. Organic, biological, biodynamic ecological or natural
farming etc. are considered to be methods and approaches that belong to Organic
Agriculture.
Organic farming is not exclusive to any form of land and/or resources ownership nor is it
restricted to the size of a farm. IFOAM however recognizes the essential role of smallholders
in the stewardship of biodiversity and regards Organic Agriculture based on the scientific
7
H. Verhoog, 2007
see http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/principles/index.html
9 Universal basic understandings expressed in definitions, principles, positions etc.
8
-5discipline of agroecology as the most appropriate way to achieve ecological, agronomic and
socio-economic intensification of smallholder agriculture. 10
2.5
Recent mandates by the Organic Movement
In 2010, the Organic Movement (i.e. the membership of IFOAM) approved the new Organic
Guarantee System. This decision includes establishing the IFOAM Community of Best
Practices and a seal for those standards setters pioneering best practices and applying more
sustainable production requirements in their standards than those of the baseline IFOAM
Standards Requirements (COROS)11.
In 2011, the IFOAM General Assembly in Korea confirmed unanimously that IFOAM should
lead a process to improve the organic sector and raise greater public awareness of the fact
that organic is the sustainability leader among all farming systems. It passed the following
motion:
“IFOAM shall position Organic Agriculture better in its own and the public perception as a
holistic, sustainable farming system that is committed to further develop its practices to meet
traditional and new challenges. To implement this motion, IFOAM shall build an action
network with allies, which works out a new positioning that highlight the multiple benefits of
Organic Agriculture. IFOAM shall also develop strategic recommendations regarding
sustainability development for the stakeholders of the organic world.”
As a consequence, in 2012, the IFOAM World Board initiated the Sustainable Organic
Agriculture Action Network (SOAAN). The goals od SOAAN’s goal are to contribute to
improved sustainability, to increase the overall impact of organic farming and to provide
leadership for agriculture and its value chains more generally.
SOAAN’s work includes, but is not limited to, the development of a reference document that
describes best practices, the development of a strategy brief paper, the positioning of
Organic Agriculture as well as the development of educational materials for the
dissemination of organic knowledge and for advocacy purposes.
3.
3.1
The IFOAM World Board’s Position on Sustainability
Development
The Strategy of the Organic Movement: Continuous Improvement
and Scaling up in a Balanced Manner
The present global agriculture system is not sustainable. Organic Agriculture, the alternative,
however covers only a very small percentage of global agriculture land12 and yet not all
organic systems are sustainable, either.
Organic Agriculture aims at full coverage and sustainability including the functional integrity
of its systems. This implies the expansion of Organic Agriculture and the improvement of
own systems. The Organic Movement is committed to improving and making a high priority
the principle of continuous improvement on farm, local, national, regional and global levels
for farming, value chain development and their support sectors.
The Organic Movement endeavors to maximize its positive impact and improve sustainability
within and beyond organic systems. The IFOAM World Board suggests a dual strategy that
10
see IFOAM-Smallholder position paper
Common Objectives and Requirements of Organic Standards (COROS) used among others for
assessments for the IFOAM Family of Standards
12 The IFOAM statistics published annually in the ‘World of Organic Agriculture’ states 0.9% of
agriculture land as certified organic agriculture.
11
-6foresees the simultaneous expansion of organic farming and the implementation of
improvments towards sustainability.
Expansion of Organic Agriculture depends largely on the attractiveness of organic farming
for farmers who may adopt organic systems for many reasons including market demand,
economics, health, necessity, food security, sustainability, ideology and policies. Similarly,
consumers are important drivers and actors in the expansion of Organic Agriculture. Many of
the above mentioned reasons that attract farmers to Organic Agriculture equally apply to
consumers as well. Consumers can also drive Organic Agriculture by entering into direct
trading and investment agreements such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and
Participatory Guarantee Systems. Economics is an important factor in the attractiveness of
organic products for customers and consumers with many considering organically produced
raw materials, ingredients and products as desirable but yet are sensitive to price. The
systems and stakeholders along the whole value chain, including producers, processors,
traders and consumers need to be ready for the additional uptake of organic systems and
production. Both the communication of the systems as well as the marketing of the products
play a crucial role here.
The improvement of sustainability in organic systems needs special awareness about the
reality and the goals by the sector. It needs a strategic lead , which has been initiated by the
IFOAM General Assembly as described above. Organic sustainability development requires
research and innovations; extension of knowledge, skills and attitudes; institutional
development; good legal frameworks and smart financial incentives; well-informed
consumers and organic standards developments.
More sustainable production practices often translate into higher production costs. Thus,
standard adaptations have to be handled with care in order not to compromise the
opportunities for growth. On the other hand, if improvements in sustainability are neglected,
the credibility of Organic Agriculture may be questioned, thus restricting impact opportunities
and delaying the achievement of the vision.
The priority and the pace of development of the expansion and the sustainability
improvements have to be balanced and adapted to local conditions. This depends partly on
the dissemination of knowledge. It also depends on consumer awareness of sustainability
gaps and their willingness to pay for higher production requirements.
The price premium is often seen as an engine of development for organic development.
Yet, the higher price of organic products is also considered a major barrier to the expansion
of Organic Agriculture. A focus on the diversification of drivers would stimulate expansion
and therefore contribute to the sustainability of agriculture. IFOAM members are already
leading many initiatives where price premium is not the main factor or in some cases not a
factor at all. An increasing number of institutions13 are considering integrating organic
agriculture into their programs for addressing land degradation, increasing the resilience of
smallholder farming and enhancing food accessibility. Also there are organic consumption
and production models that enable farmers to increase income without requiring a significant
price premium. Direct marketing, farmers markets, and community supported agriculture
(CSA) can make organic products more affordable, increase farm income, and in some
instances, spread risks. These drivers play an important role in increasing the uptake of
Organic Agriculture and improving the overall sustainability of agriculture globally.
IFOAM also strongly advocates the public sector support of organic systems as people
centered tools for addressing rural poverty, food security, climate change, implementation of
the right to food, food sovereignty as well as greater equity and social inclusiveness in both
agriculture and value chains.
13
For example the IFOAM Advocacy partners UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification), WFP (World Food Program) or IFRC (Red Cross Societies)
-7With the vision of a global adoption of organic systems, the price premium will, eventually, no
longer play a role. The higher the uptake of Organic Agriculture and the less wealthy a
society, the less prominent price premiums can be. While IFOAM acknowledges that fair
prices are imperative and that the organic sector should offer outstanding processes and
product quality that reflect the true costs of production, it is also important that organic
products do not become exclusive to a small wealthy segment of the world population.
Therefore higher production costs and price premiums have to be within a range acceptable
to a large and ever-increasing share of consumers. The organic sector must remain
competitive with conventional food and other agricultural products, and, must be mindful to
keep Organic Agriculture production requirements as affordable as possible.
IFOAM advocates including negative and positive externalities into the production costs
and product prices. This includes environmental and social impact assessments that are
compulsory for many extractive industries such as mining, oil and fisheries, but not yet for
agriculture and agribusiness. The polluters-pay principle has to be applied more broadly also
in agriculture production. Such a shift in policies would provide incentives for organic and
truly sustainable systems and would give them the market advantage they deserve. At the
same time, IFOAM also advocates policies that encourage the uptake of Organic Agriculture
based on its ability to effectively and affordably address multiple sustainability issues such as
land degradation, climate change and food insecurity e.g. through public procurement
policies that favor organic smallholder production and inclusion in national climate policies14.
In order to achieve the goal of maximizing its impact, development towards the vision must
be strategized thoughtfully, at the right pace and in both priority directions (expansion and
sustainability development). The decentralized actors of organic governance and strategy
setting are challenged to make smart decisions in order to be as effective as possible.
3.2
IFOAM and SOAAN’s contributions
The IFOAM World Board wishes to support the strategy described above. IFOAM both
independently and as an active and leading SOAAN member, has started to facilitate and
participate in a discussion within and beyond the Organic Movement. The outcome of these
discussions will be recorded in open access documents that can be used by stakeholders for
supporting their own strategy development and implementation. The present key document
is the Best Practice Reference.
The Best Practice Reference15 describes the vision for sustainable agriculture practices in
great detail. It builds on the Principles of Organic Agriculture by describing detailed practices
that lead to the manifested objectives embodied by the Principles, and, it aims to provide
guidance to further develop the organic sector. The document can be used as a development
guide for stakeholders in particular for strategy development, innovation research,
communications, capacity building, standards development, and benchmarking. This
document is a prerequisite for the Community of Best Practices, which is a mandate by the
IFOAM General Assembly. The IFOAM Best Practice Reference is publicly consulted and is
subject to approval by the IFOAM General Assembly (planned for autumn 2013). The content
of this document is subject to public comment and changes initiated by future IFOAM
member motions to the General Assembly e.g. in 2014.
IFOAM plans further documents for the implementation of the Sustainability Motion of the
General Assembly. The IFOAM Strategy Brief16 is a set of recommendations for the leaders
of the organic world in their respective regions and sectors and for the message builders
inside and outside the organic world. The Positioning of Organic Agriculture 17 describes
15
This document is based on the IFOAM membership decision on the Organic Guarantee System
This document is based on the IFOAM Sustainability Motion in the General Assembly 2011.
17 This document is based on the IFOAM Sustainability Motion in the General Assembly 2011.
16
-8how organic agriculture wants to be seen by the public including consumers, citizens, as well
as the civil society, and the private and the public sectors.
4.
Final Statement
The IFOAM World Board, through the mandates of the General Assembly, took an initiative
and the lead to position organic farming as an alternative agriculture system to address
global challenges so that the goal of system integrity on a sustainable planet becomes
realistic. This requires unity of values and directions of the global Organic Movement, while
maintaining the diversity of stakeholders and local solutions. The process has started and the
World Board hopes for an impactful continuation of it. It is grateful to its allies in SOAAN and
to the IFOAM members and it is committed to continuous improvements on all levels.