Sustainability of organic farming
in a global food chains perspective
There is an increased conversion to organic farming (OF) on a global scale both in Developed and in Developing countries such as China, India, Tanzania, Uganda, Egypt, Brazil and Argentina. The primary driving forces for this is the increased demand for imported organic products in the richer countries in the North and the increasing domestic market in some developing countries. At the same time supermarket sales of organic products have been increasing and dominate sales in DK and other European countries. This development may spread also to the home markets in developing countries, where supermarkets are gaining important shares of food sales. Consumers in Denmark and in urban centres around the world are thus being exposed to an increasing number of imported organic foods, some of which are substitutable with similar locally produced conventional food items. It is difficult for consumers and traders to know what the consequences are of their different food choices, i.e. what development do they support if they buy "global organic food"?
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The organic food system has been transformed, from groups of loosely coordinated producers and consumers, to a globalised system of regulated trade linking socially and spatially distant sites of production and consumption. While organic farming policies, practices and institutions in Europe have been thoroughly studied; state interest in organic agriculture remains low and weakly institutionalised in many other parts of the world. The development of certified OF in some tropical countries has been driven by demands from companies and organisations with the aim of supplying consumers in the North. Therefore, the organic ideas and principles are not always embedded within the local farmers. These characteristics represent both a possibility and a challenge to organic farming, because they hold the potential to increase the volume of organic products sold, but at the same time threatens to dilute the specific organic ideas as expressed in the principles formulated by IFOAM and local organic movements. Based on this reality, global trade and the increasing role of supermarkets in worldwide organic food supply, this project will research the globalisation of organic agriculture from an interdisciplinary development perspective.
Certified organic farming in Europe has evolved from a niche to become a public policy instrument for meeting multiple societal goals, including provision of environmental services, rural development and sustainable livelihoods. At the global level, potentials to increase volumes of organic products sold has raised expectations for organic agriculture to provide also a global development pathway. Potentially, certified organic farming can offer food security, livelihood and poverty alleviation opportunities and less liquidation of natural capital. That is why development bodies such as IFAD and FAO increasingly perceive organic farming as representing a development potential. Outside Europe, however, developmental - livelihood and sustainability - implications of organic globalisation are under-researched and so is the question of the necessary local institutional set up for organic farming to be locally embedded and benefit smallholder farmers. No major study has yet analysed the ideas, practices and institutions, which comprise and coordinate the increasingly global organic agro food network.
The overall objective of this project, therefore, is to determine to what extent and under which conditions organic farming may reduce local and global negative environmental impacts and provide sustainable improvements in poor farmers' livelihoods within the framework of the global food supply chain and the increased urbanisation. Specific objectives are:
- To identify how smallholder organic production systems complies with organic principles and ideas of diversity and recycling of nutrients under different degrees of integration in local and export markets.
- To assess environmental profiles of organic food products in relation to long and short food chains relevant for informing Danish and other urban consumers, and economic factors influencing the same.
- To determine levels and nature of embedment of organic ideas, principles and practises among public and private agencies as well as farmers' organisations in four case countries: Brazil, Egypt, Uganda and Vietnam.
- To determine to what extent formal policies and programmes are conducive to the development of organic farming in the four case countries.
- To study the impact of organic farming on rural development and determine under which policy and market conditions the price premium and/or other development values benefit smallholder farmers in the case countries.
The project will build on a combination of case studies where selected organic products are followed backwards through the chain from consumers, through supermarkets and procurement systems to smallholder farmers. Products will be selected to represent different choice situations for the consumers (e.g. imported goods that compete with locally produced resp. exotic products). There will be research in consumers' and market agents' roles for organic food demand in DK and a number of countries and in the consequences of OF in selected smallholder farms. The importance of food miles and energy use in short vs. long product chains will be researched in relation to other environmental and socio-economic consequences of OF. The cross-disciplinary approach will be secured through involvement of different expertise in DK and abroad and participatory working methods. The project has a strong focus on coordination and communication through workshops and websites and research education including four Ph.D. students. Moreover a specific work package is reserved for synthesis of the market oriented, farm oriented, product oriented and institutional analyses.
Project title
Sustainability of organic farming in a global food chains perspective (GLOBAL ORG)
Project leader
Niels Halberg, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus, Research Centre Foulum, P.O. Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele. Phone: (+45) 8999 1206. Fax : (+45) 8999 1200. E-mail: Niels.Halberg@agrsci.dk
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Project leaflet 2008 (pdf)
Project website
Publications
Leaflet 2006 (pdf)
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