19th Isofar Newsletter Nov 2014

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Internaonal Society of Organic Agriculture Research

Newsleter No. 19, November 2014

Dear Reader

Editorial

Founded in June 2003, ISOFAR has recently arrangedits 4th General Assembly, linked to the 18th OrganicWorld Congress in Turkey. On October 12 at the YeditepeUniversity, Istanbul a new board was elected, and also anew President Prof. Dr. Gerold Rahmann from ThnenInstute of Organic Farming, Germany.

The President expresses his aims and ambions withISOFAR in this newsleer. For the rst me, a call forapplicaons for a posion as world board member waslaunched, and 21 candidates from 14 countries expressedtheir interest in this important task. Some former boardmembers had decided to redraw, some did not succeedin a re-elecon, and some were re-elected. Hence, thenew board has a good mixture of experienced boardmembers, and newcomers with lots of ideas for our fu-ture acvies. The future for ISOFAR looks bright!

If you want to read more about the 18th OWC, check thislink.

The President 2011-2014, Prof. Dr. Sang Mok Sohn, andformer board members, were acknowledged for their ef-

forts for ISOFAR. Sang Mok Sohn was appointed as a Ho-norary President, following the rst Honorary Presidentof ISOFAR Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kpke who was appointed in2011. The new board looks forward to a connued closecooperaon, e.g. to arrange seminars and conferences,and not least the ISOFAR 2015 Goesan Internaonal Or-ganic Expo in South Korea.

The scienc track of the 18th OWC was very useful toengage ISOFAR members in scienc acvies. Manymembers kindly parcipated in the evaluaon of papers,and further in the chairing of sessions, and evaluaon ofposters. The combined ISOFAR-ICROFS booth was a busy

hub during the whole event, where people met, signed

up for membership, found printed proceedings andmade new friends. The poster prize compeon becamea great success, and is further described in a separatepaper in this newsleer.

As usual, the newsleer does not only contain orga-nizaonal news, but also papers describing sciencacvies within organic agricultural research. Witzen-hausen students have toured Norway, and report theirimpressions here. The FQH network recently arrangedan interesng seminar in cooperaon with FAO in Rome.When an inuenal organizaon like FAO considers toinclude an organic diet in their toolbox for sustainabledevelopment, it is truly an important step forwards. Prof.Dr. Carola Strassner has reported from Rome. An ISOFARseminar on organic food and agriculture was conductedin Korea in July, as a part of the preparaons for theOrganic 2015 Expo. In Finland, FORI supported by ISOFARrecently arranged a seminar on organic food quality andpolicy. From both events, we report some impressions.Finally, the next OWC will be in India in 2017. We startthe work to make ourselves more familiar with organic

agriculture and research in this sector in India, by a paperdescribing the big challenges of ensuring food securitywith changing climate condions.

The headline New projects is empty in this issue.However, that does not mean that no new internaonalorganic projects have been started since July 2014. Forthe next issue, you are all very welcome to submit someinformaon about your projects! Other contribuons tothe newsleer are of course also required. Thanks a lotto all authors of the papers in this newsleer!

Anne-Krisn Les, vice president of ISOFAR and editor ofthe ISOFAR newsleer

Photo:Linda

SndergaardSr

ensen
http://www.isofar.org/http://www.organic-market.info/web/Europe/Turkey/IFOAM_World_Congress/220/246/0/17646.htmlhttp://www.organic-market.info/web/Europe/Turkey/IFOAM_World_Congress/220/246/0/17646.htmlhttp://www.isofar.org/http://www.isofar.org/


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Dear members of ISOFARIt is a pleasure for me as a new elected president of ISO-FAR to give an outline of my vision for the work of ISOFARin the period of 2014-2017. In 2003, ISOFAR was funded

to network the isolated global organic researchers. Onlyacademic persons are members, not instuons. In 2013,there were about 1109 acve and passive members,coming from 97 countries all over the world.

The main work is to inform members about organic far-ming research with newsleers and conferences such asthe scienc tracks at the Organic World Congress, and togive organic research a forum through a scienc journalof organic farming. Our jornal Organic Agriculture, publis-hed by Springer, was launched in 2011.

The challenges for the future are to make more and moreresearchers acve in organic research, to merge acviesand informaons and last but not least, to help to solvethe future challenges: Food demand of an increasingglobal populaon, climate change, healthy environment,ending fossil fuel and changing public expectaons andacons.

ISOFAR has to change its strategy from a pure scienccommunicaon network into an acve society to mergeeorts and resources to have beer arguments for thecontribuon of organic farming to solve future challengesthrough:

A. Regular global assessment of ongoing organic re-search in the countries: Who is doing what, and what

are the results? The output will be networking aconsand further, more relevant results.

B. Design of regional and global strategic researchacon plans, together with IFOAM and local actors:Giving visions to solve future problems.

C. Support and joining communicaon of organicfarming in internaonal and naonal commiees withscienc based informaon. Our aim is to become ascienc voice for organic farming.

D. More members, and communicaon between themembers.

Despite the problems of shortage of resources for orga-nic research all over the world, increasing challenges tostay in communicaon with non-organic food systems,sll too much isolated researchers, and too few researchresults on how organic farming can help to solve futureproblems, we should not give up but to do beer: forthe future of a healthy and secure humanity under theshelter of the four principles of Organic Farming: Health,ecology, fairness and care.

We need you becoming a member, becoming acve!

Vision for ISOFAR

2014-4017Gerold Rahmann, ISOFAR President

Instute for Organic Farming,

Thnen Instute, [email protected]

ISOFAR President 2014-2017 Prof. Dr. Gerold Rahmann, Germany withWorld Board Member Prof. Dr. Mahesh Chander, India (to the le) at

the ISOFAR booth on the 18th OWC.
http://www.isofar.org/http://link.springer.com/journal/13165http://link.springer.com/journal/13165http://www.isofar.org/http://www.isofar.org/


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From left, front row:

Prof. Dr. Wu Wenliang, China AgriculturalUniversity, Beijing, China

Prof. Dr. Mahesh Chander, Indian Veteri-nary Research Institute, Izatnagar, India

Prof. Dr. Gerold Rahmann (President), Insti-tute for Organic Farming, Thnen Institute,Germany

MSc. Ilse A. Rasmussen (Treasurer), Inter-national Centre for Research in OrganicFood Systems, ICROFS, Denmark

Dr. Anne-Kristin Les (Vice-President), Bio-forsk Organic Food and Farming Division,Norway

Prof. Dr. Ewa Rembialovska, Warsaw Uni-

versity of Life Sciences, Poland Prof. Dr. Victor I.O. Olowe, Institute of FoodSecurity, Environmental Resources andAgricultural Research, Abeokuta, Nigeria

From left, back row:

Dr. Stefano Canali, Consiglio per la Ricercae la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Rome,Italy

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hamm, University Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany

Prof. Dr. Raaele Zanoli, Universit Politec-nica delle Marche, Italy

Dr. Reza Ardakani, Azad University, Karaj,Iran

Prof. Dr. Peter von Fragstein, University

Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany

Report from the ISOFAR General Assembly

The General Assembly (GA) always held in conjunc-on with the Organic World Congress every three years

was held this me in Istanbul on October 12, 2014.About 40 parcipants aended the GA.

The President Prof. Dr. Sang Mok Sohn (Dankook Univer-sity, South Korea) gave the overview of the acvies inthe period 2011-2014. Several conferences have beenorganized and supported. The 4th Scienc Track at theOrganic World Congress 2014 in Istanbul was the big-gest challenge. Many ISOFAR members supported thispreparaon with their skills and resources. Thank youall!

The nancial situaon is healthy and wealthy. About180 paying members make the work of networkingpossible. There have been no costs on administraon.Many thanks to the treasurer during 2011-2014, GeroldRahmann and the Thnen-Instute, Germany! We havemade 2-3 newsleers per year and distributed to allfriends of ISOFAR, which comprise about 2000 registe-red sciensts.

In 2011, ISOFAR established the journal Organic Agricul-ture, and more than 80 papers are already available. All

members have free access. Thanks to MSc Ilse Rasmus-sen at ICROFS, Denmark, who has been the contactperson of the board towards the publisher.

A big project was started in 2012 with a contract to theChungcheongbuk-do province in South Korea, to pre-pare the scienc contents of the ISOFAR 2015 GoesanInternaonal Organic Expo, to be held in September2015 in Goesan, Korea. The ISOFAR board has preparedthe scienc contents of 10 themac halls and does ad-vice the organizing comiee in South Korea to transferit into the elements of the exhibion by 3 consultancymeengs. Thanks for all the work to Prof. Dr. Sang MokSohn (local representave of ISOFAR) and HonoraryPresident Prof. Ulrich Kpke (University Bonn, Germany)and the other board members to give all their skills andresources to make it a big event.

Aer the approved reports the new ISOFAR board forthe period 2014-2017 was elected. We had about 21candidates from all over the world and high sciencreputaon the elecon was not easy. The names ofthe lucky winners are shown along with the picture ofthe new board members.

Photo: Oo Schmied, FiBL, Switzerland.
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Anne-Krisn Les, Senior Researcher

Bioforsk Organic Food and Farming, [email protected]

Posters are oen neglected at scienc conferences. InIstanbul, close to 200 posters were presented. To empha-size the importance of these contribuons, poster wallswere put up in most scienc sessions, and the postersbrought there to be presented and included in the discus-sions, before being brought back to the poster hall.

By kind assistance of a team of 20 very enthusiasc posterevaluators, ISOFAR was able to hand out 10 poster prizesa 200 Euro for the most excellent posters. This happenedduring the Congress Recepon for all parcipants at thesecond evening of the OWC on October 14.

Diplomas were printed on site, most winners were iden-ed, and we were able to hand out 8 prizes in personalduring the Congress Recepon. The remaining two werehanded out during the next day. All winners were verysurprised, and extremely sased. It was a real honor tobe the one to inform the winners about the prize decision,because this was really a big, but posive, shock for all.

The 10 best posters at the scienc track of the

18th OWC are presented to the right, with theirnumber in Organic Eprints. All poster authors are encou-raged to send their poster as a pdf to [email protected] , so they can be added to this entry in thearchive.)

Sabine Zikeli, Uni. Hohenheim,Germany

Azim Khalid, Inst. Naonal de laReserche , Morocco

Aliyaru K. Sherief, Kerala AgriculturalUniversity., India

Ewa Rembialkowska, Warsaw Univer-sity of Life Sciences, Poland

Hans Marten Paulsen, Thnen Inst.,Germany

Solveig March, Thnen Inst., Germany

Frank Oudshoorn, Danish Inst. of Agri-cultural Sciences, Denmark

Shaikh Tanveer Hossain, Friends in Vil-lage Development, Bangladesh

Mohaammed Reza Ardakani, AzadUniversity, Iran

Jrn Sanders, Thnen Inst., Germany Mahesh Chander, Indian Veterinary

research Inst., India Jochen Mayer, Agroscope, Switzerland Mohammadreza Rezapanah, Centre

of Excellence for Organic Agriculture,Iran

Atle Wibe, Bioforsk Organic Food andFarming, Norway

Stefan Khne, Julius Khn Inst., Ger-many

Hendrik Moos, Thnen Inst., Germany Victor Olowe, Federal University of

Agriculture, Nigeria Daniel Neuho, Rheinische Fr.W. Uni-

versity, Bonn Muhummad Nazim, Bangladesh Agri-

cultural Research Inst., Bangladesh

ChrisanAndres,Switzerland:YieldAndEconomicPerforman-ceOfOrganicAndConven-onalCoon-BasedFarmingSystemsResultsFromAFieldTrialInIndia(orgprints23660)

JoseeBoisclair,Canada:Bene-cialAndPestInsectsAssociatedWithTenFloweringPlantSpe-ciesGrownInQuebec,Canada(orgprints24006)

RenataKazimierczak,Poland:AnalysisOfOrganicAndConvenonalBeetrootJuiceAs-sortmentInWarsawShopsAndConsumerSensoryEvaluaonOfSelectedProducts(orgprints24040)

IsabelMouro,Portugal:Pru-ningSystemEectOnGreen-houseGraedTomatoYieldAndQuality(orgprints24059)

AishatuMukhtarAbubakar,Ni-geria:ResponseOfGroundnut(ArachisHypogaeaL.)VarieesToVaryingDefoliaonIntensi-es(orgprints23030)

OrsolyaPapp,Hungary:On-FarmExaminaonOfResistantEarlyAndMaincropPotatoVarieesInHungarianOrganicFarming(orgprints24355)

FeifeiQin,China:ApplicaonsOfSignalTransduconAndXer-ophytophysiologyByExposingHypocotylsInOrganicPeanutProducon(orgprints23740)

AgnesSalat,Spain:Short-Term

EectsOfCropHusbandryOnTheWeedCommunityOfACereal-LegumeRotaon(orgprints23807)

HendrikSommer,Germany:LeafMassOfClover-LikeLegumesAsAProteinSourceInOrganicPigNutrion(orgprints24023).

KatharinaZipp,Germany:AgitaonBehaviourAndHeartRateOfDairyCowsWithAndWithoutCalf-ContactDuringDierentSmuliInThePar-lour(orgprints23965)

ISOFAR Poster Prize forOWC Scienc Track

The winners

We want to express our great appreciaon to the poster evaluators:

Photo: Marie-Louise Andersen

Poster evaluators discussing intensively to nd the winners
http://www.isofar.org/http://orgprints.org/23660/http://orgprints.org/23660/http://orgprints.org/24006/http://orgprints.org/24006/http://orgprints.org/24040/http://orgprints.org/24040/http://orgprints.org/24040/http://orgprints.org/24040/http://orgprints.org/24059/http://orgprints.org/24059/http://orgprints.org/23030/http://orgprints.org/23030/http://orgprints.org/24355/http://orgprints.org/24355/http://orgprints.org/23740/http://orgprints.org/23740/http://orgprints.org/23807/http://orgprints.org/23807/http://orgprints.org/24023/http://orgprints.org/24023/http://orgprints.org/24023/http://orgprints.org/24023/http://orgprints.org/23965/http://orgprints.org/23965/http://orgprints.org/23965/http://orgprints.org/24023/http://orgprints.org/24023/http://orgprints.org/23807/http://orgprints.org/23740/http://orgprints.org/24355/http://orgprints.org/23030/http://orgprints.org/24059/http://orgprints.org/24040/http://orgprints.org/24040/http://orgprints.org/24006/http://orgprints.org/23660/http://www.isofar.org/http://www.isofar.org/


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Heli Peltola, Communicaons PlannerFinnish Organic Research Instute (FORI)

Heli.peltola@helsinki.

A scienc seminar on Organic Food 2014 open, cricaland collaborave approaches was held in Mikkeli, Finland onNovember 5-7, 2014.

The seminar gathered 50 researchers and other experts oforganic food and farming from Scandinavia, other Europeancountries, and Canada.

Presentaons were held under four themes:

Current trends in organic food research Quality and origin of organic food Health reputaon of organic food Organic food and society.

However, health was one overarching perspecve coveringall the studies presented one way or another. Whether it washealth indexes of French adults using organic food by emeritusResearch Director at INSERM, Doctor Denis Lairon from Mar-seille, or systemac literature review and meta-analyses condu-cted by Newcastle University, which showed higher anoxidant

and lower cadmium concentraons and lower incidence of

pescide residues in organically grown crops presented by pro-fessor Raija Tahvonen from MTT Agrifood Research Finland.Professor Ernesto Guzman from University of Guelph, Canadashared some results of his studies assessing fungi and essenaloils for their ecacy to kill varroa mites, which has become themost serious health problem of honey bees worldwide. In hispresentaon, doctor Michael Walkenhorst from Switzerlanddealt with domesc animals and infecous diseases in orga-nic farming the need for alternaves to control (resistant)pathogens. In a closing session of the seminar senior research

scienst Helena Kahiluoto from MTT Agrifood Research Finlandspoke about Global food crisis and future scenarios on organicfood consumpon.These were just a few examples of the topics covered in theseminar by keynote speakers. Introducons and parallel work-shops spurred lots of discussion and quesons in the seminar,which was arranged in frosty South-Savo, a county known fororganic farming. FORI warmly thanks ISOFAR for its co-ope-raon and promoon of the seminar, and the visit of ISOFARPresident Gerold Rahmann who aended the event.Seminar presentaons will be availabe on the seminar websitesoon! (www.luomuinstuu./en/organic-food-2014)

Finland: FORI seminar on Organic Food 2014

ISOFAR President GeroldRahmann aended theFORI seminar in Finland,

November 2014.Photo: Heli Peltola
http://www.isofar.org/http://luomuinstituutti.fi/en/organic-food-2014/http://luomuinstituutti.fi/en/organic-food-2014/http://www.isofar.org/http://www.isofar.org/


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Maria Ballhaus, Bachelor student oforganic agricultural sciences,Kassel Uni., Witzenhausen, Germany

Witzenhausen Students Touring Organic Agriculture in Norway

During June 13-22, 2014, studentsand teachers of the Faculty of Or-ganic Agricultural Sciences at KasselUniversity-Witzenhausen set o toexplore Organic Agriculture (OA) inEurope. This year Norway was chosento be the desnaon. A separate

project group, consisng of sixBachelor students, planned and

carried out the study-trip,starng in autumn 2013.

There was a lot ofwork to do beforewe nally hit the

We had to collect money, visit manyorganic farms in Norway, choose themost interesng ones and programa feasible week. To plan a realiscroute was probably the hardesttask; there are too many interesngpeople and farms in Norway to t ina one-week schedule.Finally, in the early morning of Friday,13th of June, we set out northwards.We were all in all 35 people, inclu-ding Bachelor and Master studentsas well as ve teachers. Our rstdesnaon was the Thnen-Instutin Trenthorst, Northern Germany,the leading research instute for OAin Germany. Aer an intensive inputabout organic farming in general andspecial quesons at the researchfarm, we had a good base to startvising praccal farming in Norway.

We crossed Denmark, took a ferryand arrived nally at Larvik

south of Oslo in the bright

Nordic night at 2a.m Satur-

sleep beside a lake and a lile swimand breakfast it was me to leave forour rst farm. Finding new ways wasour rst days slogan. The rst visitleaded us to Virgenes farm, a recentlyconverted and well networked orga-nic farm with Community SupportedAgriculture (CSA). We were impressedby the farmer, Tore Jardar Wirgenescourage to try new things, to breakthe tradion of tradional grain andpig farming in this area and at hisfarm. He dares to fail and doesnt failat all. He reaches people with his ideasof farming especially through the fre-quent use of new media to promotehis farm.

Our next stop was at Grndalen farm,north of Oslo. The creave dairyfarmer Hans Arild Grndahl wantedto stop the pracce of separangcow and calf right aer the birth. Heworked out a sophiscated markengconcept how to nance the addional

costs caused through loss of milkto the calves which otherwise couldhave been sold. He created a newmilk product, a sour, creamy and thickyogurt named NR, which he sold to

day 14th.Aer a few hours

road inJune 2014.

Norwegian ord landscape


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deliver all the milk to Norways lar-gest cooperave dairy Tine, who alsohelped planning and nancing this

expensive project. This farm was a bitof a contrast to all the simple barnswith much manual work that we hadpreviously seen in Norway.

In the aernoon we changed the fo-cus to sh farming, a rather unknownsector for us German students. Wevisited a sh farm for mountaintrout, and the Wild Salmon Centrein Lrdal, and got a brief insight intothe pracce and problems with shfarming.

We le Aurland and Western Norwayfor a nice detour to Aschim Vestre,north of Oslo, this evening. At Johanand Krisn Swrds farm we heardabout the qualies of tradionalvariees of cereals and about theirwork to preserve them in coopera-on with other farmers. We visitedtheir elds and mill and took a closerlook at the soil structure. Finally, inthe evening we celebrated midsum-

mer at the farm in Swedish style.

Later that night we le this beaufulcountry with its hospitable inhabi-tants. We headed back to Germany,minds and luggage lled with plentyof new experiences and impressions.One week was too lile me to getthe whole picture of Norwegian agri-culture, but enough to get an insight.Compared to Germany, especiallythe older generaon felt transportedback to the pioneering me for OAin Germany in the 1980s - 1990s.In Norway, OA seems to be a lileniche, which is beginning to comeinto public focus only the last fewyears. But why has it taken so long?Where does the scepcism of Norwe-gians towards organic agriculturecome from? These were quesons,which we asked people we met onour trip and ourselves. Perhaps thebasic trust in naonal produced foodplays an important role. Norwegians

mainly hear about food scandals

from other European countries. Theawareness that Norwegian agricul-ture is not always pure, healthyand natural is only slowly develo-ping in society. Although the dicultgeographical and climac condions

make industrial agriculture as com-monly pracsed in Germany almostimpossible, also in Norway negaveeects of pescides and mineralferlizers are on the agenda. Thelarge import of protein feed fromSouth America and China is cricised,and the image of the romanc andnatural Norwegian agriculture beginsto crumble in the consumers minds.Here we see a huge opportunity forOrganic Agriculture. The increasingconsumer interest is also reected inthe growth of CSA-farms, which oenarise through consumer iniaves.Consumers themselves are drivingwhat the policy so far has failed. In2013, the share of organic culvatedarea was 4.5%. The current propor-on of organic consumpon is above1%, but rapidly increasing.

When we looked at the Norwegianagricultural area and the size of theholdings, we were sure that it would

never come to a mass producon of

organic food such as in Germany. InNorway, as in other countries, agri-culture develops rapidly by structuralchange and economic compeon.The insular Norwegian agriculturehas so far been relavely unaected

by the world marked. With a new,conservave government in 2013,this situaon is now changing due tothe increasing abolion of customdues. The staggered subsidies,which should ensure agriculture overthe whole country, also in dicultareas, will be changed, and possiblysignicantly reduced. We heard thatmany small farmers are concernedabout the situaon. They do not seethemselves as being in a posion tocompete with farms in favoured agri-cultural areas in Southern Norway orabroad. Maybe they should not keepup the compeon, we thought, butstand out from the crowd. Regional,handmade and organic producedfood is in high demand. Perhaps thisis their chance: Creavity, cou-rage and skills to oppose the broadmass-producon of cheap food. TheNorwegian farmers we visited haveshown us in a very impressive waythat this can well be carried out in

pracse!

Working horses at Fokhol farm.


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Holger MielstrassDeans oceKassel University, [email protected]

The Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences is part ofthe Kassel University. Since 1995, the faculty dedicatedits focus in teaching and research on organic agriculturalsciences. The preservaon and improvement of livelihoodand food resources are the basis of all acvies at the Fa-culty. At Witzenhausen, research as well as teaching arebased on the precauonary principle in terms of contentsand methods. The Faculty is dedicated to the foundaonand support of an agrarian and food culture that

secures sustainable food and resource management enables a human nature interacon oriented at

the ulizaon and strengthening of self-regulangprocesses

interacts with farm animals in a respecul and gentleway

contributes to the development of secure social andeconomic condions in rural areas.

The Faculty has a truly internaonal orientaon, a longtradion in Witzenhausen. Therefore, the Faculty is espe-cially endeavoured in raising awareness concerning therisks e.g. of global change or cultural diversies. Foreignguest sciensts and students enrich the daily universitylife and give the university locaon of Witzenhausen amulcultural face. A special commitment to the interna-onal dimensions of scienc work can be seen in themany internaonal research co-operaons and universitypartnerships, the regular internaonal training program-mes and co-operaon with alumni acvies of German

universies and Summer Schools.

More than 1000 students are studying in the followingprograms: Bachelor and Master kologische Landwi-rtscha (German language) as well as the internaonalmaster programs Sustainable Internaonal Agricultureand Internaonal Food Business and Consumer Studies(both in English language). Addionally, Dual Studies inAgriculture are oered where praccal, vocaonal andhigher educaon are combined. For the public, the Facul-ty oers congresses, farmer eld days and presentaons.

The ecological prole is reected in the study objecves,teaching and learning methods, in the organisaon ofstudy as well as in the process of evaluaon. A system-oriented network of disciplinary thinking can contributetowards future-oriented soluons in agriculture. Thisconvicon is eecve in many interdisciplinary lectures.

Study has not only to do with the transfer of knowledge.It has much more to do with giving students space andsmuli to acquire scienc and professional competenceslike analycal skills, comprehensive thinking, willingness

to take on responsibility and creavity in teamwork innding soluons. This quality of teaching and learning isoen supported by co-operaon with farming enterpri-ses, associaons, public oces and last but not least bythe Facultys current research projects.

The Facultys research is carried out by 20 secons withmodern and well equipped laboratories, and further by a340 ha organic teaching and research farm with dairy andegg producon and a wide range of arable crops, as wellas a tropical greenhouse with 400 agricultural plants ofthe subtropics and tropics.

Further reading

Witzenhausen - the Organic Faculty of Kassel University

The Wit-

zenhausen

campus

ona sunny

day.

Photo:

Deans

ofce,

KasselUniversity
http://www.isofar.org/http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb11agrar/en/faculty.html%0Dhttp://www.uni-kassel.de/fb11agrar/en/faculty.html%0Dhttp://www.isofar.org/http://www.isofar.org/


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Prof. Dr. Carola Strassner,UASM University of Applied Sciences,Mnster, [email protected]

About 30 sciensts joined the Internaonal Workshopon Assessing Sustainable Diets within the Sustainabilityof Food Systems on 15th-16th September in Rome this

year. Parcipants were invited by the Agricultural Re-search Council Research Centre on Food and Nutrion(CRA-NUT), who also hosted the workshop, and theInternaonal Research Network for Food Quality andHealth (FQH).

The interest for sustainable diets is steadily increasing;for acve stakeholders from all agro-food sectors thebroader and complex context of the sustainability offood systems is highly relevant for policy and pracce.Dening a theorecal methodological framework forthe assessment of the sustainability of diets presents

many challenges. The denion reached in 2010 at theConference organized by FAO and Bioversity and theassociated four dimensions (health & nutrion, environ-ment, economic, socio-cultural) provide a starng pointfor a list of indicators serving assessment.

The tradional Mediterranean diet, sciencally well-characterized as a healthy dietary paern, appreciatedfor its lower environmental impact and acknowledgedas a cultural heritage, is used here as a model to assesssustainability of diets and food consumpon paerns inthe Mediterranean area. We from FQH thought to usethe opportunity to explore the Organic Food System as

a case study and see what support for sustainable dietswe could come up with.Two important issues were addressed at the workshop:

1. The need to foster a scienc debate on how to ad-dress the queson of sustainable diets within organicproducon/consumpon concepts and achievements,and, what contribuon the organic part can provide tothe ongoing discussions;

2. The need to nalize ongoing collaboraons on iden-caon of indicators and methods for assessingsustainable diets within the improvement of the su-

stainability of food systems, using the Mediterraneandiet and the Mediterranean area as a case study.

On the

ORGANIC CONTRIBUTIONto a sustainable diet

Organic ContribuonFlavio Paole from CRA-NUT introduced the rst of thetwo issues with a reminder of the context of our dietswithin food and agriculture systems and the global chal-

lenges compelling us to address the issues. Ewa Rembi-alkowska, Warsaw University, took us on a chronological

journey through the development of the organic foodsystem. She showed that the history of the organic mo-vement has a clear and logical sequence: First came thephilosophy and teachings, which were based on obser-vaon of nature and respect for natural laws. In turn,the organic pioneers transformed these principles intopraccal farming methods. Today organic is a worldwidefood system. Johannes Kahl, FQH Chair, took us fromthe Organic Vision all the way through to the metrics.He described the Vision of the Organic Food System asa food system that raises incomes and increases foodsecurity and food safety at both ends, furthermore as onein which the environment is preserved while farmers andworkers have fair access to the means of food producon.In so doing he showed that Organic is dened throughthe principles of organic farming and food producon. Itis regulated by EU, naonal and private standards inclu-ding a cercaon process. Today, 86 countries aroundthe globe have organic legislaon. Organic food qualityis dened through process and product related aspects.And nally, evaluaon is performed through criteria, indi-cators and parameters that can be organic specic.

Considering the Organic Food System and sustainability,Chrisan Schader of FiBL explained the framework for

Photo: Anne-Krisn Les


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Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculturesystems (SAFA) used for farms and companies. Divided

into four dimensions (environment, economy, social andgovernance) it covers 21 themes and 58 subthemes withdened objecves. Sirli Pehme of the Estonian Universityof Life Sciences probed environmental impacts more de-eply. Overall organic food producon shows good env-ironmental performance per ha, but also per kg of foodin many categories. She drew aenon to the systemboundary challenge, indicang that other steps aerfarming and processing need further invesgaon, andthat on the diet level the funconal unit (the funcon ofthe diet) needs to be specied. Sirli was passionate aboutnutrient cycling as oppose to nutrient mining. Learningsfrom nutrion, economy, society and culture were pre-

sented by Carola Strassner, UASM Germany.

Key messages included the observaon that there is notradional, food-groups-based organic diet but thatthe consumpon of organic food within a diet exhibitscertain recurring characteriscs, such as a shorter chainin terms of the degrees of separaon to the primaryproducer. Carola posited that the diet is economically fairand aordable, if the diet is sustainable according to thedenion. Nic Lampkin of the Organic Research Centre inthe UK elaborated on the agro-ecology perspecve of theorganic food system. He also spent some me on cer-

caon, underlining its value in helping translate the orga-nic principles into pracce through denion of relevantpracces and technologies. Nic stressed that the conceptof cercaon should be a foundaon to support innova-on, not a ceiling to constrain it. While it enables marketsto reward producers for adopng specic pracces, ensu-ring nancial viability of systems, all the while protecngconsumers, it can lead to bureaucracy and instuonali-saon, disregarding delivery of the broader goals.

Two case studies provided some insight into pracce.Ivana Cavoski, Mediterranean Organic Agricultural Net-work (MOAN), linked the Organic Food System to the Me-

diterranean diet with her work on organic durum wheat

in the Mediterranean diet: Old variees and tradionalbread making. Ivanas presentaon demonstrated that itis possible to bring tradions and our cultural history suc-

cessfully into modernity. Meanwhile, Anne-Krisn Les ofBioforsk in Norway explained how organic food in publicprocurement was studied in schools, where meals are amost important public service for youth.The CORE-Organic I project iPOPY showed that organicfood and farming is well suited to discuss and experiencesustainability in pracce. Analysis showed that an organicschool policy promotes healthy eang: Schools with ahealthy food policy also support organic food.

Mediterranean Diet ContribuonLluis Serra Majem, University of Las Palmas de GranCanaria, introduced the second issue on Nutrion Indi-cators to Assess the Sustainability of the MediterraneanDiet. Contribuons in this second session took up fromwork conducted since 2010 to develop, test and renea methodological approach to assess sustainability offood consumpon paerns in dierent contexts. DenisLairon, Aix-Marseille University in France, and Elliot Berry,Hebrew University in Israel, presented a dra of a back-ground document on various measures.

Selected nutrion indicators included:

Diet-related morbidity and mortality stascs (Lo-

renzo M. Donini, CIISCAM) fruit & vegetable consumpon (AidaTurrini, CRA-NUT) Vegetable and animal protein (Barbara Burlingame,

Deakin University in Australia) Dietary energy supply (Angela Polito, CRA-NUT) Dietary diversity (Aida Turrini, CRA-NUT) Dietary energy density (Denis Lairon, Aix-Marseille

University in France) Nutrient density & quality (Denis Lairon, Aix-Marseille

University in France) Biodiversity composion & consumpon (Barbara

Burlingame, Deakin University in Australia Nutrional anthropometry (Lorenzo M. Donini, CI-

ISCAM) Physical acvity (Angela Polito, CRA-NUT).

A spirited discussion on the merits and shortcomings ofindicators suitable for the assessment of diet sustainabili-ty followed in the presentaons plenary session and intothe delicious Italian workshop dinner at a local restau-rant near the FAO headquarters on that warm Mondayevening.

Bringing it together to assess sustainability of dietsThe third and nal session sought to bring the various

contribuons together under the umbrella of Assessing

Participants at the CRANUT-FQH seminar in Rome, September 16,

2014.


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Sustainable Diets in the Context of Sustainable FoodSystems. Vincent Gitz, Coordinator of the High LevelPanel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrion describedframeworks for sustainable diets and sustainable foodsystems. This was followed by a number of perspecvesfrom the Mediterranean, including Hamid El Bilali (CI-HEAM), Rekia Belahsen from Chouaib Doukkali Universityin Morocco and Antonia Trichopoulou from the Hellenic

Health Foundaon in Greece. Felice Adinol, University ofBologna, addressed the economic dimension and MilenaStefanova, ENEA, addressed the environmental dimen-sion.

Denis Lairon gave a detailed presentaon on the prolesof organic food consumers as studied in the French Nu-trinet cohort. The results were in astonishing agreementwith those from the German study on organic consumersusing data from the Naonal Nutrion Survey II as pre-sented by Carola.

Regular consumers of organic products in both the Frenchand the German cohorts exhibited: a beer dietary paern (more plant food-based) a diet ng food-based and nutrional recommen-

daonsmarkedly less overweight and obesity a higher level of physical acvity a non-smoking roune.

Denis showed that regular consumers of organic produ-cts have healthier life-style proles this is valid for theGerman cohort too - and thus a beer compliance withthe sustainable diet concept (more plant foods, beernutrion, beer safety, beer lifestyle and health (adipo-

sity), to minimize energy/water uses and environmental

impacts). In so doing we came full circle to the denionof sustainable diets (see box insert above).

Carola summarised the organic support for a sustainablediet by poinng out that the Organic Food System is aLiving Lab. It has a denion, it has the principles, it hasthe standards, it has the metrics. And today it also hasthe data.

The Organic Food System shares with the Mediterraneandiet pung the land (agri-cultura) back into the diet, in-deed, it is the land from which the diet in toto is shaped.

As head of the Sustainable Food Systems Programme,

a joint iniave established by the FAO and the UnitedNaons Environment Programme (UNEP), AlexandreMeybeck (FAO) led the nal discussion and conclusion ofthe Internaonal Workshop. This included a deliberaonabout which organic-related measures might be useful inthe sustainability assessment of diets and the noon ofcharacterising organic value chains from a sustainabilityperspecve on the basis of the dimensions discussed (he-alth & nutrion, environment, economic, socio-cultural).All in all a very fruiul and inspiring workshop!

The workshop received the patronage of the EXPO 2015which will be hosted in Milan from May 1st to October

31st next year around the theme of Feeding the Planet,Energy for Life, and a contribuon from the Ministryof Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MiPAAF).Furthermore, it enjoyed technical collaboraon with theFAO Sustainable Food Systems Programme, the NaonalResearch Council (CNR), the Italian Naonal Agency forNew Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic De-velopment (ENEA), the Internaonal Centre for AdvancedMediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), PTBio Italiaand the Internaonal inter-university center for Mediter-ranean food culture studies (CIISCAM).

Workshop Proceedings are to be published shortly.Interviews follow on page 12.

Photo: MariGreta Brdsen

Deinition of Sustainable Diets

Sustainable Diets are those diets with low environmentalimpacts which contribute to food and nutrition securityand to healthy life for present and future generations.

Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodi-versity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, accessible,economically fair and affordable; nutritionally adequate,safe and healthy; while optimizing natural and humanresources.

(FAO & Bioversity, 2010)


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INTERVIEW

Flavio Paole, Re-search Centre on Foodand Nutrion, Italy(CRA-NUT)(Centro di ricerca per glialimen e la nutrizione,Rome)

Q: Can you tell us something about theperspecves on agro-food systems?

It is recognized around the world that thereis a need to reshape the current agro-foodsystems in the direcon of sustainability.Very oen, yet, the approach to the su-stainability of the agro-food systems is onlyfrom the producon perspecve. We needinstead a global, holisc vision of the agro-food system that includes the nal steps ofthe food chain: distribuon and consump-on (dietary paerns).

If a worldwide increase of obesity is ob-served, if tons of food are lost and wastedalong the food chain and at home level, italso means that current consumers foodatudes and choices, food purchasinghabits, dietary paerns, and lifestyles haveto be changed if a more sustainable foodsystem is the objecve to be achieved.

Sustainable diets represent the link bet-ween sustainable food consumpon andproducon, and both have to be depen-dent on food requirements and nutrientrecommendaons.

Q: What aracted your aenon most atthe Rome workshop?

During the preparaon of the workshop, Inoced the strict correspondence betweenthe principles on which the organic agricul-ture and food producon is based (health,ecology, care, fairness), and the denionsof sustainable food systems and sustaina-ble diets. Among several common traits,the stress on health (human health, animalhealth, environment health) was the mostaracve to me.

Considering the data on the crop cate-gories in organic agriculture worldwide,as well as scienc papers describing theprole of organic consumers, I got a senseof the principles of organic agriculture,their transformaon into regulaons andapplicaon in pracce that are able toorient somehow both the producon andconsumpon paerns in a way that theyare naturally in tune with the recommen-daons for healthy dietary paerns.

Q: In your opinion, what are the mainresults from the Rome workshop?

I might say that the main result is that wewill have a lot of work to do for the futureand this is good news for researchers.

The Mediterranean Diet (MD) has beentaken as a case study for the assessmentof the sustainability of diets. MD is amodel whose healthy benets have beensciencally demonstrated. However it isa model in crisis that probably needs to berevitalized, because the non-adherence ofcurrent dietary paerns to the MD modelis increasing trend in almost all Mediter-ranean countries. In my opinion there isthe need to go through concrete situaons,to analyse dierent geographical, social,cultural contexts, to understand and assesshow far current dietary paerns are from

the denion of sustainable diets.

In the workshop, the issue of sustainablediets has been considered within the moregeneral issue of the sustainability of thefood systems. During the nal discussionit was proposed to invesgate the organicfood system as a case study for sustaina-ble food systems. There was a generalagreement on this proposal. This is animportant result of the workshop, becauseit oers new perspecves and scenarios forthe research in organic and the develop-ment of the organic sector.

INTERVIEW

Johannes Kahl, Chair-man FQH Food Qua-lity and Healthnetwork

Q. What do you see as the contribuon oforganic to sustainable diets?

When Gussow et al. started the discussionon sustainable diets in the Sevenes, it wasmainly based on combining concepts onhealthy diets with environmental aspectsfocusing on local food producon andconsumpon. Forty years later Rockstrmet al. idened loss in biodiversity as themajor factor for environmental problems.When FAO took this up in 2010 and startedthe work on sustainable diets, the Mediter-ranean diet was taken as example.

So far so good but this diet is both histori-cal and focused on one region. Here orga-

nic oers a praccal living example, whichrepresents a growing food system which

goes worldwide and is underlined not onlyby a well documented historical back-ground but also by cercaon processesand data sampling. Therefore the organicfood system, if we can take it so, is not onlyable to deliver indicators or parametersfor evaluaon of sustainable diets but alsomay be taken as a case study for sustaina-ble food systems.

Q. What surprised you most at the Rome

workshop?

For me two gaps became very obvious:On one hand we are talking in terms ofsystems, system approach and the otherhand we have millions of data in our handsbut it seems very tricky to make a connec-on between all single parameters and thesystem. Even to think this seems a problemand even more to select parameters,describing the systems essenal parts,boundaries etc.

The second gap is how to describe asustainable diet that it is not only scien-

cally based and polically accepted butalso will encourage the people in prac-

se, those who are really doing the job.Sustainable diet needs to reach the peoplealong the food chain from eld to fork,mainly consumers.

Q. What message would you like to bringback from the Rome workshop for theorganic community?

Most of the organic acvies are focusingon agriculture, primary producon level

and environmental issues. To describeorganic as a food system integrang alsoprocessing and consumpon seems to be amajor challenge for the next me period.

Organic as a food system may be taken asan example for sustainable food systemsworld wide. At the same me this may con-tribute to develop organic further. Anotherchallenge may be the work on how farwe can describe organic as a healthy andsustainable diet or as essenal part of it,connecng organic to a healthy life-style,regional producon and consumpon andnew insights in nutrion and health. Both

challenges are and will be part of our workin FQH.


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Carmelita Cervantes,ISOFAR world board member 2011-2014Central Bicol State University of Agriculture,

Philippines, [email protected]

The ISOFAR 2015 Goesan Internaonal Organic Expo andIndustry Fair are sll almost a year away, but its hosts andorganizers have long been on their feet for the preparaon ofthis grand event that will highlight organic agriculture underthe theme Organic Life, Science Meets the Public. The occasionis expected to gather about 620,000 domesc and 40,000

foreign parcipants from various sectors from all over theworld in the vicinity of Dongjincheon in Goesan-eup of Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, Republic of Korea on September18-October 11, 2014. This long exposion will highlight thevalue of organic agriculture in life and environment throughthemac halls, outdoor experiences, exhibions of medicaland beauty products, food and beverage products, farm produ-cts, and other related trade and industry products. It will alsoconduct a series of academic events such as symposia andseminar, and also hand-ons, cultural performances and otherorganic experiences.

The preparaons were reviewed by members of the ISOFARworld board 2011-2014 during a 2-day consultaon meengheld at Chungcheongbuk-do, Geosan, and Dankook Universityon July 22 and 24, 2014.

The acvity, which was just one of the series of consultaonssince January, 2014, was aended by members of the organi-zing commiee and ocials of Chungcheongbuk-do, Goesan-gun and ISOFAR. Business promoon and event organizersof the expo were also present during the meeng. ISOFARwas represented by its President, Prof. Dr. Sang Mok Sohn andboard members Mohamed Benkheder (Tunisia), Peter vonFragstein (Germany), Laszlo Radics (Hungary) and CarmelitaCervantes. It is expected that all roads will lead to Goesan forthe ISOFAR 2015 Goesan Internaonal Organic Expo, and that

it will contribute to posion Korea as the center of organicagriculture in the Asia Pacic region.

The consultaon meeng was accompanied by an InternaonalSymposium on the Development of Korean Organic Agricultureand Industry, held at Jungwon University at Goesan, RepublicKorea on July 23, 2014. In a plenary session, Sang Mok Sohn,President of ISOFAR and Chairman of the symposium Organi-zing Commiee, presented the speech Development tendencyof Organic Agriculture and Its Related Industry. In the sessionof internaonal speakers, four other world board members(2011-2014) were invited as keynote speakers, presenng thefollowing papers:Mohamed Benkheder: Organic Maer Management in Organic

Plant Nutrion

Peter von Fragstein: Mul-funconality of the Living mulch inOrganic Vegetable Producon SystemsLaszlo Radics: Innovave Techniques in the Physical Manage-ment of Organic Farming worldwideCarmelita Cervantes: Performance of Philippine and Korean-Bred Variees in Under SRI Organic Producon Systems.In a session of local speakers, ve Korean speakers presentedpapers signicant to the development of Korean organic agri-culture and industry.

The symposium was organized by the Chungbuk Province,

Geosan County and ISOFAR primarily to generate informaonand strategies for the upcoming Expo. The acvity was high-lighted by the commitments and full support of the naonal aswell as the local government, academic sector, farmers, indu-stry and media, which is promising with respect to the successof this large event. The Korean ocials present in the eventwere Lee Sijong, Governor, Chungcheongbuk-do Province,KyoungJae Hur, Secretary General of the Organizing Commieeof the Expo, Dr. Chang-Khil Song of Jeju Naonal University, Dr.Byunghwan Ahn, President of Jungwon University, and otherocials and representaves from the academic instuons,heads of local as well as naonal government, farmer organiza-ons, industry, private and media groups.

Organic symposium in Korea: Preparing the 2015 Expo


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The General Assembly of IFOAM (furtherreading at www.ifoam.org ) is an importantpart of the Organic World Congress, andwas arranged in Istanbul, Turkey duringOctober 15-16, 2014.

One of the very excing topics to be deci-ded was the venue of the next OWC.

For the rst me, as many as four countriescompeted to present the best approach:Brazil, China, India and Russia. IFOAM dele-

gates had no easy choice, but the engagedspeech from India, promising to take the

OWC back to the roots of farming and inte-grated thousands of Indian organic farmersin the event, was obviously convincing.India won!

ISOFAR has one board member from India,Dr. Mahesh Chander, but also acve mem-bers like Dr. A. K. Sherief. This is a goodstarng point for a close cooperaon withIndian research organisaons and instutesto produce an excellent scienc track ofthe OWC in 2017.

The paper on the next page, wrien by A.K.

Sherief, presents some of the current chal-lenges that organic agriculture is facing in

India, and serves as a good background forfurther work of ISOFAR in this region.

India: Venue of the OWC 2017

Challenged by Climate Change

Marie-Louise Andersen, communicaons ocer at Internaonal

Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS),Denmark.

[email protected]

On October 1. the ERA-Net Core Organic invited leadingsciensts, stakeholders and funding bodies to the third seminarunder the European research program CORE Organic. The semi-nar was a way to let project leaders share knowledge from theirprojects and to create an opportunity for sciensts to networkwith stakeholders, funding bodies and each other. The overallreceipt of the meeng seemed very posive.

Willemine Brinkman from the EIP-Agri Service Point especiallyhighlighted the user perspecve of the seminar and noced

that a lot of the projects had farmers involved in the enreresearch process.There is a need for more pracce-oriented research. Scienstsare oen judged on whether their arcles are published inpeer reviewed journals, and not on whether farmers use thisnew knowledge. The ulmate goal for agricultural research isthat it should benet farmers and society as a whole. she said,highlighng the philosophy of innovaon that that EIP-Agri(The agricultural European Innovaon Partnership) is looking tonurture within all levels of agricultural research and pracce.The EIP-Agri is dedicated to foster innovaon for compeveand sustainable farming and forestry.

Disseminaon was a specic goal of the seminar, as Niels Hal-berg, director of ICROFS, and coordinator of CORE Organic, saidin his welcoming speech.In my experience sciensts are not good at disseminangduring the project period and that is why we need to arrangeseminars like this, he said and encouraged for discussions andpossible cooperaon in the following workshop in which eachof the project leaders presented their project to small groups oflisteners.

Maybe the things you believe is important in your project arenot what others see as important, Niels Halberg connued.

The curly tailsAt a closing panel discussion, project

leaders from all the projects answeredquesons from stakeholders and audienceand discussed among other things how to bet-ter communicate their research to the broadersociety.

There seemed to be a shared percepon that it is dicult toshare complicated research results with the consumers theychoose food based on prize and trust. In order to make consu-mers buy organic, trust is the main issue, many agreed.

Project leader of the ProPig project, Chrisne Leeb from BOKUUniversity of Natural Ressources and Life Sciences, noted, thatthe organic farming has the advantage of the curly tails.

It is complicated to explain about space allowance and provi-sion of straw. So we need to nd easy ways of communicang.And in pigs eg. we have the curly tails which is an animal basedindicator of the system showing integrity, that the food is okayand the housing. Its an iceberg communicator, she said.

CORE Organic II partners met and networked

11.3 mio. euro given to organic research

Eleven new European research projects were selectedfor funding by the 22 CORE Organic Plus funding bodiesat a meeng in Stockholm on October 2. 2014. Theprojects selected will receive 11.3 million euro includingcofunds from the European Commission and is a con-nuaon of the CORE Organic II.

India won!

Photo: KirstyMcKinnon,

Bioforsk.

Photo: Colourbox


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Aliyaru K. Sherief, College of Agriculture,Kerala Agricultural University, Vellayani(PO) Kerala, India.Email: [email protected]

Climate change is one of the most seri-ous challenges facing naons, govern-ments, business and cizens of today andfuture decades. The IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC) in itsfourth Assessment report warns that by2100 the condions will be worse thanpreviously expected, with a probable

temperature rise of 1.8o

C to 4o

C and apossible rise of up to 6.4oC. As tempe-ratures connue to rise, the impactson agriculture will be more signicant.These impacts are already being experi-enced in many countries.

Poor farmers, especially in developingcountries are more vulnerable to theimpacts of climate change because oftheir geographic exposure, low incomesand greater reliance on agriculture aswell as limited capacity to seek alterna-ve livelihoods. An eecve combinaonof sustainable agriculture and climate

change policies can boost green growth,protect the environment and contributeto the eradicaon of hunger and poverty.

Organic agriculture opmally combinesdierent pracces in a systemac man-ner and sustains agricultural produconin resource-limited regions. The FAO re-gards organic agriculture as an eecvestrategy for migang climate changeand building robust soils that are beeradapted to extreme weather condionsassociated with climate change. TheIPCCs Fourth Assessment Report alsorecommends the use of pracces which

are standard in organic agriculture foradapng climate change.

Scienc research is needed to deter-mine which agricultural techniques,pracces and systems will achieve actualclimate change adaptaon. The scaling-up of organic agriculture would promoteand support climate friendly farmingpracces.

Climate-Smart Agriculture is gainingincreasing popularity as a unifying con-cept on climate change and agriculture.It is possible to have higher yields, morecarbon in the soil and greater resilience

towards droughts and heat. Climate-smart agriculture seeks to increaseproducvity in an environmentally andsocially sustainable way, to strengthenfarmers resilience to climate change,and to reduce agricultures contribuonto climate change by reducing green-house gas emissions and increasingcarbon storage on farmland (World Bank,2011).

As Climate Change is one of the mostimportant challenges aecng the live-lihood of people all over the world, theimportance of adopng climate smart

pracces, has been growing. In India,agricultural sciensts are now invesga-ng the eecveness of organic farmingfor climate change adaptaon in com-parison with convenonal farming. Thedegree of vulnerability towards climatechange in respect of convenonal far-ming and the extent of adapve capacityin respect of organic farming have to beanalysed.

A tool for measurement of VulnerabilityIndex (VI) and Integrated Adapve Capa-city Index (IAC) are to be developed. Thiswill help planners to formulate suitable

developmental programmes in areaswhere the indices are high or low. It will

further help to focus on to the future re-search studies related to climate changeadaptaon.The Indian sub-connent is bestowedwith a unique agroclimac and ecolo-gical situaon that mimics almost theenre worlds climac and agroecologicalsituaon.

Agricultural pracces of India date backto more than 4000 years, and organic far-ming is very much an indigenous praccein this country. Vedic period farmers pos-

sessed a fair knowledge of soil ferlity,seed selecon, plant protecon, sowingseasons and sustainability of crops indierent lands. Today, India has about528,171 hectare area under organicagriculture (including cered and areaunder organic conversion) and accountfor about 0.3% of total agricultural land.Kerala, one of the smallest states ofIndia, has already started the processof conversion to organic farming by2020. Sciensts have developed organicfarming pracces for demonstraon byintegrang crop husbandry with animalhusbandry, sh culture or mushroom

culvaon in homestead farming.

This is one of the strategies to de overthe nancial crisis when there is incomedecline from any single farming pracce.However, there is a need to develop acomprehensive framework that inte-grates organic farming pracces withclimate change, and technology diusionwith reciprocal knowledge ow fromfarmers, sciensts and local innovators.

The scienc track of 19th OWC 2017 inIndia will be an ideal plaorm to addressthe above issues, among others.

A Climate smart Organic Agriculture:

The future strategy for present farming in IndiaStudents froma Kerala agro-entrepreneurial pro-gramme for femalefarmers of Keralademonstrang newtechnologies forfood producon, tocompensate the lossfrom reduced yieldsof eld crops. To thele: Mushroom cul-vaon; to the right:Fish raising. Photo byA.K. Sherief.


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Membership services We would like to remind all ISOFAR

members, and people wanng to

become members: Please send to theISOFAR Head Oce ([email protected])the keywords related to your profes-sional experse, and contact details.

The Head Oce needs your informa-on for future joint research acvies

among members, organising lecturerequests, etc.

All members are kindly invited toprovide contribuons to the ISOFAR

Newsleer such as reports on your on-

going acvies and other interesng or

useful informaon.

Important: Dont forget to inform uson any change of your address!

Newsleer contact:Contribuons (text les and seperatepicture les) should be sent to:

Anne-Krisn [email protected] .

ISOFAR Contact InformaonInternaonal Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), c/o Instute of Organic Agriculture (IOL), Katzenbur-gweg 3, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.

Legal seat of the society

Internaonal Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), c/o Instute of Organic Agriculture (IOL), Katzenbur-gweg 3, D-53115 Bonn, Germany

E-mail | [email protected]| www.isofar.de/isofar

PresidentProf. Dr. Gerold Rahmann, Thnen Instute of Organic Farming, Germany.Phone

+49-1702994694E-mail: [email protected]

2014, Internaonal Society of Organic Agriculture Research

Editor: Anne-Kristin Les, Bioforsk,

Norway

Layout: Marie-Louise Andersen,

ICROFS, Denmark

Board member Dr. Mahesh Chander (to the le) recently joined the Asian Biofach and

made eorts to advocate the ISOFAR World Expo in Korea 2015. Here with

Mr Mathew John, IFOAM world Board Member, Jennifer Chang, Execuve Director of

IFOAM Asia and Lim Kak-soo, the Mayor of Goesan county, Korea.

OrganicDataNetwork videos

Three videos have been produced within theOrganicDataNetwork project by Thomas Alfldi, Research Instute

of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland. They describe what the

intenon of the project was and its main achievements.

See the videos here
mailto:info%40isofar.org?subject=http://[email protected]/mailto:anne-kristin.loes%40bioforsk.no?subject=mailto:info%40isofar.org?subject=http://www.isofar.de/isofar/http://www.organicdatanetwork.net/odn-videos.html%23c11898http://www.organicdatanetwork.net/odn-videos.html%23c11898http://www.isofar.de/isofar/mailto:info%40isofar.org?subject=mailto:anne-kristin.loes%40bioforsk.no?subject=http://[email protected]/mailto:info%40isofar.org?subject=

Documents

19th Isofar Newsletter Nov 2014