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Organic Agriculture and Organic Movement
Challenges & Opportunities
Some confused concepts
Pollution-free agriculture product 无公害
Ecological agriculture product 生态
Green product 绿色
Organic product 有机产品
Definition of organic agriculture
Following the principles of sustainable development and comply with fundamental organic standard.
Organic agriculture prohibits or limits any input of
synthetic fertilizer, pesticide, regulator or feed additive, and prohibits using any GMO products. The core of organic agriculture is to establish and recover the bio-diversity and sound recycle of agro-ecology system.
Brief history of organic agriculture
Original type of agriculture, and practiced for thousands
of years;
The industrial revolution introduced inorganic methods,
some of which had serious side effects;
Artificial fertilizers were created during the 18th century,
initially with superphosphates and ammonia fertilizers;
Chemical pesticides invented in the 1940s, led to the
decades being referred to as the ‘pesticide era’;
Brief history of organic agriculture
as a reaction to agriculture's growing reliance on
synthetic fertilizers and pesticide, the organic movement
began in the early 1900s.
The modern organic movement seeks to restore balance
that was lost when technology grew rapidly in the 19th
and 20th centuries.
Increasing environmental awareness in the general
population;
Premium prices and governmental subsidy financially
encourage organic movement.
Key points in organic agriculture
Prohibits or limits: • Synthetic chemical fertilizer
• Pesticide (insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, regulator and additive)
• GMO products (genetically modified organism)
• embryo replant or radialization
Organic label and certification
Organic label and certification
About organic certification
• a certification process for producers of organic food and other
organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly
involved in food production can be certified, including seed
suppliers, farmers, [food] processors, retailers and restaurants.
• Requirements generally involve a set of production standards for
growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping.
To certify a farm, the farmer is typically required to engage
in a number of new activities: – Study
– Compliance
– Documentation
– Planning
– Inspection
– Fee
– Record-keeping
About organic certification
About conversion period
According to EU Regulations (EC)934-2007, conversion
period is an interim from conventional production transfer
to organic production.
About organic certification
Establishing a traceability system建立可追朔体系
• Traceability refers to the completeness of the information
about every step in a process chain.
• 可追朔是指整个流程链上的每个步骤的信息都是完整的
About organic certification
Organic certification organization
• At present, there are more than 20 organizations who conducts
Chinese national standard organic certification.
• By the end of 2009, there are 4 organizations who are engaged in
international standard organic certification, they are:
– OCIA (organic crop improvement association), China Alliance 国际有机作物协会 中国联盟
– ECO-CERT 北京爱科赛尔认证中心有限公司
– IMO (institute for marketecology) 南京英目认证有限公司
– BCS （organic guarantee-Germany）湖南欧格有机认证有限公司
International organic certification agencies in China
3 levels
United Nation level: made by FAO, WHO…
International NGO level: made by IFOAM
National level: made by specific region or countries such
as EU, The United States and Japan…
Organic standard
Organic standard
• EU Regulations (EC)934-2007 and EU Regulations
(EC)889-2008
• USDA, AMS 7 CFR Part 205, National Organic Program,
Final rule
• Japanese Agriculture Standard
• Bio Suisse
• Demeter
• Naturland (Germany)
Geographic distribution of organic farmland
0.87
0.93
0.99
1.03
1.15
1.55
1.64
1.77
2.78
12.02
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Germany
Uraguay(2006)
Spain
India
Italy
China
US(2005)
Brazil
Argentina
Australia
Million Hectares (By the end of 2007)
Global distribution of organic farmland
24.1%
19.9%
8.9%
6.8%
37.6%
2.7%
大洋洲 欧洲
拉丁美洲 亚洲
北美洲 非洲
(The total amount of global organic farmland by the end of 2007: 32.2 mio. Ha)
International “organic”
vs.
Chinese “organic”
Disadvantage, debate and dilemma of organic agriculture/movement
• Results of conversion from conventional farming to
organic farming
– Decrease of yield output
– Increase of labor work
– Not so good-looking of the product
• Consequences of marketed organic products
– Price of certified organic product
– Long-term thinking or short-term gains
– Attitude of the government
• Safety and nutrition of organic food
– Unquestioned safety
– Nutritional test results are diverse and debated, i.e. secondary
plant compound, Vitamin C and Nitrate
• Are organic products really environmental friendly
– Economic globalization requires long distance transportation
– Higher Carbon Footprint in cross-continental transportation
Disadvantage, debate and dilemma of organic agriculture/movement
• Direction flow of organic products trade: from undeveloped/developing countries to developed countries, where the main organic market is and where the standard and price are determined.
• Obstacles in organic certification – Complexity of certification procedure
– High expense to obtain and maintain certificate
• Difficulty to keep organic purity of the whole process from seed to food
Disadvantage, debate and dilemma of organic agriculture/movement
Organic food
Organic product
Organic lifestyle
