Daniel Neuhoff

Editorial: Exploring organic agriculture's place within the agricultural revolution

The 10,000-year-old agricultural revolution continues. However, the nature of this revolution has changed in recent years—at least a little. During most of the last century, agricultural progress was described by systems that produced more crop and livestock products through the addition of ‘external inputs’. Organic Agriculture has become an alternative to the industrialized systems that now dominate much of world agriculture. The organic movement started with scientists, farmers and gardeners who noticed the benefits to food production systems that emphasize integration, recycling and diversity. Organic Agriculture is the most popular current example of regenerative agriculture—where crop and livestock production are based on ecological principles. By drawing on the resource-conserving aspects of traditional practices and the best modern ecological and agronomic knowledge, Organic Agriculture strives to meet the twin needs of sustainability and productivity. Today, Organic Agriculture is growing worldwide at both the production and consumer levels. A great number of questions are being asked about Organic Agriculture. While ecologically based agricultural systems may sound good in principle, can they really advance agriculture—especially since they appear to reject the technologies that contributed so much to recent gains in food production? Is Organic Agriculture advancing the revolution, or is it just a counter-revolutionary distraction? These are important questions that deserve answers. Some answers to these questions are given in this special issue entitled ‘Researching sustainable agricultural systems’, based on selected short papers presented at the First Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR) in September 2005 in Adelaide, SA, Australia. Many agronomists question whether Organic Agriculture can provide high yields. ‘How can farmers grow competitive crops without herbicides – especially in the face of so many weeds?’ This is a legitimate question, especially given that we are still battling weeds in conventional agriculture after 50 years of herbicide use. Our ongoing ‘war on weeds’ has shaped the way industrial crop production is practised, and it has defined much of the way agronomists and farmers perceive weeds. In this issue, Hauggaard-Nielsen et al. demonstrate that polycultures— intercrops of barley and legumes—enable crop plant communities to suppress weeds and suffer less disease, while at the same time maintaining productivity. This work clearly demonstrates that applying the basic ecological principles of diversity, competition and facilitation allows organic crops to be productive even in the face of pests. Also in this issue, Lukashyk et al. determined an optimum combination of plant competition and soil disturbance (tillage) for effective control of Canada thistle—one of Organic Agriculture’s worst perennial weeds. This information will likely be music to the ears of researchers such as John Vandermeer, who has long since understood the ecological basis of alternative agriculture, but whose views have not always been appreciated by agronomists. The challenge for agronomists will be to design site-specific polyculture systems and management schemes that work in different soil, climate and crop systems. Questions also exist about organic livestock production—especially regarding animal health. In this issue, Haring et al. tested tanniferous legume plants for nematode control in sheep. They identified legume species that provided both high pasture yield and parasite control. Their research showed that a plant-based therapy may be an alternative solution for parasite control in livestock— another fascinating application of ecology in the food production system. Climate change and energy supply concerns are rapidly changing how we think about agriculture. It is doubtful whether Organic Agriculture will be spared. While it is well–documented that organic farms require 40–50% less external energy than conventional farms, little is known about how organic farms might become energy producers. In this issue, Halberg et al. identify the changes to land use and crop choice needed for a Danish cash crop farm to become more energy-independent through production of biodiesel from canola and biofuel from biomass. This study also raises new questions regarding the policy and infrastructure changes needed for such changes to occur in reality. Environmental stewardship is just so important! For example, it is becoming clear that agriculture needs to be more answerable for greenhouse gas emissions. In this issue, Kustermann et al. present a detailed accounting of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use from organic and conventional farms. Their work was conducted using a modeling approach that considered C and N within soil– plant–animal systems. The Kustermann et al. paper provides an excellent example of how to conduct greenhouse gas balance studies on a whole farm basis, and it stresses the need for interdisciplinary research teams. Readers will Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems: 23(1); 1–2 doi:10.1017/S1742170508002214

Organic agriculture in Bhutan: potential and challenges

The Government of Bhutan, a poor rugged mountainous kingdom in the Himalayas, aims to convert the whole agricultural area to Organic Agriculture (OA) by 2020 in an effort to provoke a substantial increase of productivity and farmers income while preserving the environment. Currently less than 10 % of the agricultural area of Bhutan is in OA production. We analysed the assumptions of the Bhutanese Government cited above from an agronomic perspective. According to our estimates, farmer incomes after conversion will increase only if organic crops will out-yield conventional crops or if farmers can realize higher market prices. Organic yields may partly increase beyond current productivity but may not become as high as in systems using agrochemicals. Under these premises, higher farmer incomes after mass conversion are not likely. The current low agricultural productivity is mainly a result of low soil fertility combined with other system-independent factors such as inadequate input supply, e.g. low quality seeds, lack of techniques and knowledge, inefficient management, labour shortage and poor infrastructure. These problems need to be tackled with integrated approaches, which should include organic management practices such as growing fodder legumes. Integrating more strategies of OA into Bhutanese agriculture is expected to have positive ecological effects. System comparisons between conventional and organic production require more empirical data on the agronomic and economic performances, which are yet to be generated in Bhutan. In addition to trade policies, market and infrastructure development, the organic sector will benefit from a well-resourced Centre of Excellence to focus on research and knowledge transfer.

Ready for the future—renewed Aims and Scope

During the last two decades Organic Agriculture has undergone a remarkable development throughout the world. Today (2018), organic production is done in more than 130 countries. More than 2.7 million farms produce on about 50 million hectares certified organic products with a market value of nearly 100 billion US Dollar. But, organic production is not only a market issue. Various governments consider organic farming as an option, or BPlan B^, to satisfy consumer and public expectations for sustainable food production chains. Particularly in Europe, significant public support is given to further develop Organic Agriculture. This innovative production system is the paradigm for multifunctional agriculture such as climate mitigation and adaptation, clean water, conservation of biodiversity, agro-ecology, animal welfare, healthy soils, income generation for small scale farming and entrepreneurs, attractive landscapes and rural cultures. The principles of Organic Farming—subsumed by the organic agriculture movement under the terms of ecology, health, care and fair—are the lodestar and give guidance for a fruitful development. So far, everything looks fine. But, Organic Agriculture cannot exist in isolation and ignore global food challenges. Forecasts for 2050 and 2100 show the need to produce more food for a growing population in a sustainable way. The United Nations have described the challenges in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Simply spoken: sustainable intensification of farm land use is necessary to produce more food for more people on limited space. Additionally, food processing, storage, trading, and consumption as elements of the food chain have to become more efficient and sustainable. Organic food production has to contribute to solve these challenges and SDGs. To do this, changes are needed in Organic Agriculture as well. These challenges are increasing productivity per hectare, reduced losses throughout the food chain, improved renewable nutrient cycles, higher resource efficiency (nutrients, energy, water, etc.), fair prices for consumers and producers. If Organic Agriculture is considered as a Btool box^, and not only as a certified production pattern for premium markets, it has the option to contribute significantly to the global food challenges, particularly for Org. Agr. (2018) 8:181–183 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-018-0226-x