Eduardo Cuoco, Director of IFOAM Organics Europe, welcomed the guests and summarized the growth of organic agriculture in Europe over the past years: "The organic movement's presence in Brussels has grown alongside the number of organic producers and processors in Europe over the last twenty years, and organic farming is now recognised as the leading European project to make our food system more sustainable. The 25% organic target of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies is a recognition of the benefits of organic agriculture for the environment, farmers, and consumers".
With these encouraging words, the event was opened. With a strong focus on the political interaction with the EU institution, the anniversary conducted excellent discussions and conveyed strong political messages both to policymakers and the organic sector itself. "Much remains to be done to make agriculture more resilient and in line with planetary boundaries, but the organic movement can be proud of what has been achieved so far for the recognition of its contribution to many European policy objectives. Consumers also trust organic; the fact that the market grew to €44.8 billion proves this", said Eduardo Cuoco.
High-level debate with Frans Timmermans: We need to change our ways
In the first panel, Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, said, “We need to change our ways to avoid catastrophes, recharge our economy with new energy, so to create better and sustainable jobs as well as create an international environment based on good and positive relationships on peace rather than on conflict". Timmermans advocated for a long-term view on food security, adding, "There will be no food shortages in Europe". There is a global food crisis which is not based on food scarcity but rather the fact that "we cannot get enough food from where it's produced to where it's needed".
As Frans Timmermans underlined, the Commission’s commitment to the EU Green Deal and more organics agriculture comes from their belief in its benefits for the climate, environment, soil, biodiversity, animal welfare, and socio-economic conditions. He concluded by encouraging the European organic movement to "keep doing the good work they have done in the past years", contributing to solving climate and biodiversity crises.
Panel debate: More organics on the EU market
The second panel had the motto “Empowering citizens and supply chain actors in the transition to sustainable food systems”. Nathalie Chaze, director of food sustainability and international relations at the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), affirmed that "we have a lot to learn from the organic movement" when it comes to collaboration.
Concerning the 25% organic land target in Europe for 2030, Beate Huber, FiBL Europe's president, said that "we need to scale up and both push and pull the market and farmland growth. For this, restaurants and food in public kitchens provide good opportunities". She shared the concerns about the new sustainability labelling initiative of the European Commission: "I am warning that this new labelling might lead to a simplification which might be not what consumers need. Consumers need transparency, but it is impossible to catch everything in one single label".
Concluding, Aina Calafat Rogers, part-time organic farmer and IFOAM Organics Europe's deputy council member from Spain, addressed the issue of greenwashing and the need for legislation, saying, "We don't call things by their name. Everything can be called sustainable while it's not."
Concluding session: The CAP’s role in reaching 25% organic land
The concluding session was about reaching the 25% organic target through a supply chain approach. Wolfgang Burtscher, Director-General of the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), said that Member States' CAP National Strategic Plans were assessed and that the Commission had sent observation letters. On the same note, he added, "We looked closely at matches between the target for organic land and the budget attributed to these." Our Director reflected on the Commission's 25% organic land target and its importance, adding that "Such target keeps the minds of Member States focused, especially because in many Member States there is no coherence between the CAP National Strategic Plan target and budget."
FiBL and IFOAM Organics Europe
FiBL Switzerland was thanked for its good cooperation and important support with a recognition award for its long-term cooperation with IFOAM OE. For instance, the Technology Platform for organic food and farming (TP Organics) was initiated and is strongly supported by FiBL[1]. In the area of statistics, FiBL annually supplies data on organic agriculture, which is also used on the website of IFOAM Organics Europe[2]. There are several other examples of key research projects in which the two organizations have advanced organic agriculture research over the last 20 years. Together with the International Centre of Organic Farming Research ICROFS, FiBL and IFOAM Organics Europe are running the organic farmknowledge platform www.organic-farmknowledge.org. Furthermore, Babara Früh of FiBL has represented Switzerland on the council of IFOAM Organics Europe for more than a decade.
Celebrating the year of organic
IFOAM Organics Europe is turning 20 in 2022 while IFOAM – Organics International is turning 50 and IFOAM Asia is turning 10. Several events are taking place throughout the year to celebrate these anniversaries. One of them is the Organic Youth Event, which will take place at FiBL in Switzerland on August 31 and September 1 2022. And next year, the celebrations continue: FiBL Switzerland will be 50 years old.
More information
Contacts
- Beate Huber
- Barbara Früh
- Miguel de Porras
Links
- organicseurope.bio: Celebrating 20 years of the European organic movement in Brussels
- organicseurope.bio: Twenty-year anniversary - Celebrating 20 years of making Europe more organic at the heart of the EU
- organicseurope.bio: Organic in Europe. Production and consumption moving beyond a niche
- statistics.fibl.org: Data on organic agriculture in Europe
Referebnces
- [1] Niggli, Urs; Slabe, Anamarija; Schmid, Otto; Halberg, Niels und Schlüter, Marco (2008) Vision for an Organic Food and Farming Research Agenda 2025. Organic Knowledge for the Future. Technology Platform Organics. IFOAM Regional Group European Union (IFOAM EU Group), Brussels and International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), Bonn, Germany. https://orgprints.org/id/eprint/13439/
- [2] Trávníček, Jan; Willer, Helga and Schaack, Diana (2022) Organic Farming and Market Development in Europe and the European Union. In: The World of Organic Agriculture. Statistics and Emerging Trends 2022. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL and IFOAM - Organics International, Frick and Bonn, S. 235–270. https://orgprints.org/id/eprint/44094/