Nicolas Lampkin

Organic farming policy in the European Union

Organic farming is recognised in the European Union as one possible model to improve the sustainability of agriculture. During the 1990s the sector grew rapidly (to 3% of agricultural area in 2000), caused in part by policy support measures in member states and the EU. The paper summarises the development of the organic sector, discusses reasons for policy support, and reviews the main policy measures at EU and country level in three areas: legislation defining organic production, direct payments and other measures. It concludes that in future the integration of policy measures within countries and at EU level should be improved, in particular through the development of national and European action plans for organic farming.

Organic supply chain collaboration: a case study in eight EU countries

This study aims at contributing to a better understanding of the linkage between supply chain performance and possible performance improvement with respect to food quality and safety. Therefore, the article addresses the question whether the level of collaborative planning and close supply chain relationships could help improve the quality and safety of organic supply chains. The study was conducted as part of the multi-disciplinary EU-wide survey of organic supply chains, carried out in eight European countries. In this article we report the results of the study regarding the structures and performance of six different organic supply chains in these eight European countries for: milk (CH, UK), apples (DE, CH), pork (UK, NL), eggs (DE, UK), wheat (HU, IT, FR) and tomatoes (IT, NL). In-depth interviews with key-informants were carried out in 2006 to investigate the structures, performance, and relationships within the supply chains. Results show a low level of collaboration among various actors especially in cost and benefit sharing. Highly integrated supply chains show higher collaboration especially in the domain of Decision Synchronization. Trust and collaboration appear to be related with increased performance, whereas the higher the perceived risk for quality and safety, the higher the probability of supply chain collaboration.

How the organic food system supports sustainable diets and translates these into practice

Organic production and consumption provide a delineated food system that can be explored for its potential contribution to sustainable diets. While organic agriculture improves the sustainability performance on the production side, critical reflections are made on how organic consumption patterns, understood as the practice of people consuming significant amounts of organic produce, may also be taken as an example for sustainable food consumption. The consumption patterns of regular organic consumers seem to be close to the sustainable diet concept of FAO. Certain organic-related measures might therefore be useful in the sustainability assessment of diets, e.g., organic production and organic consumption. Since diets play a central role in shaping food systems and food systems shape diets, the role of organic consumption emerges as an essential topic to be addressed. This role may be based on four important organic achievements: organic agriculture and food production has a definition, well-established principles, public standards, and useful metrics. By 2015, data for organic production and consumption are recorded annually from more than 160 countries, and regulations are in force in more than 80 countries or regions. The organic food system puts the land (agri-cultura) back into the diet; it is the land from which the diet in toto is shaped. Therefore, the organic food system provides essential components of a sustainable diet.