Major congress on Organic Farming, Food Quality and Human Health

Organic farming have been shown to be beneficial for the environment, biodiversity and economic regeneration in rural areas. Furthermore, there are increasing evidence that the way organic farmers manage the soil and look after their livestock can positively affect the health and well-being of people eating organic food. Organic and other 'low input' farming is being seen as an opportunity to reconnect public health and agriculture.

For these reasons most European governments and the EU Commission have taken an interest in developing organic and low-input farming practices. This interest has been translated into the initiation of a number of European research projects on different aspects of food and farming.

Dialogue between researchers and stakeholders

Common to the European research projects is the wish to disseminate research results to actors within the organic food chain, but also to engage in direct discussions with the farming community and other stakeholders, including food processors, retailers and consumers, about the research agenda.

In order to facilitate this dialogue, an international congress on 'Organic Farming, Food Quality and Human Health' has been organised jointly between the Soil Association – the leading organisation promoting and supporting organic food and farming in the UK - and three major European research and development projects. The congress is to be held from January 6th to 9th 2005 at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England.

Full information is available on the Internet on the address http://www.qlif.org.

Projects behind the congress

The main project behind the congress is the Integrated Project QualityLowInputFood, which focuses on 'improving quality and safety and reduction of cost in the European organic and low-input food supply chain'. The QualityLowInputFood project is supplemented by a project on 'Organic HACCP', which aims to identify improved procedures for securing 'consumer-oriented food safety and quality of certified organic foods', and the 'Blight-MOP' project, which focuses on the control of late blight in organic potato production systems.

Finally, researchers from other European and nationally funded research projects on organic farming will also use the congress to present and discuss their results.

Attendance by journalists

A limited number of journalists may attend the conference free of charge if they cover their own travel and accommodation costs and book a place in advance with the conference organisers.

Journalists wishing to request press passes should contact the Soil Association media and PR manager, Ms Sue Flook, by email (sflook@soilassociation.org).

Further information

For practical information about the congress, please contact:

Ms Lois Bell, Nafferton Ecological Farming Group, University of Newcastle, Nafferton Farm, University of Newcastle, Stocksfield, NE43 7XD, UK, Tel. (+44) 1661 830 222. Fax (+44) 1661 831 006. e-mail: l.ebell@ncl.ac.uk

For any further information, please contact:

Claus Bo Andreasen, Information officer, Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming (DARCOF), Foulum, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele, Tel.: +45 8999 1035. Fax: +45 8999 1673, Email: clausbo.andreasen@agrsci.dk. Web: http://www.darcof.dk