Each issue of CORE Organic news will bring an overview of current topics in the individual countries regarding research in organic food and farming.

Austria

Seeds for organic farming

Sustainable crop production like organic farming is characterised by reduced inputs of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and increased agricultural biodiversity. Modern cereal varieties have been developed with the aim of combining high productivity and uniform product quality under high-input conditions. So there is a discrepancy of the requirements between seeds for low-input and high-input systems.

After a long period of discussion in Austria, different projects have been initiated to find solutions for this problem. In December 2004 the research project “Basic principles for breeding, multiplication and variety testing for organic agriculture” started. The main focus of the 4-year research project lies on development and evaluation of basic principles of breeding, multiplication and variety testing for organic agriculture. The inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation and the combination of different scientific approaches bring together breeding companies, researchers and farmers and contribute to meet the holistic demands of organic farming.

The following topics are covered with different workpackages:

Basic principles of breeding

• Biotic interactions in the organic growing system
• Importance of genotype-environment interactions
• Selection of genotypes suitable for organic farming conditions
• Implementation of organic variety testing if needed
• Description of differences between genotypes in their reaction in yield, quality and N-utilisation under drought conditions in comparison to ambient conditions
• Evaluation of root characteristics including mycorrhiza suitable for the assessment of water and nutrient use efficiency
• Assessment of root traits that may contribute to good weed suppression or tolerance

Selection

• New selection criteria based on established conventional breeding criteria
• Critical assessment of selection methods currently used in conventional and organic breeding programs as well as new selection methods for their use in breeding for organic agriculture
• Definition of adjusted selection intensity for breeding for organic agriculture

These research activities form the basis for the Austrian contribution to the COST Action 860 SUSVAR "Sustainable low-input cereal production: required varietal characteristics and crop diversity". At present 26 countries are members of this COST Action.

For further information see www.cost860.dk or contact the project leader wilfried.hartl@aon.at

The Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries have recently launched the last phase of the campaign for the EU organic logo. The campaign for the EU logo is co-financed by the EU Commission. Already after the first phase of the campaign running from August to October 2004, 42 per cent were familiar with the EU organic logo – against a mere seven per cent the previous year. When TV has run the campaign for the last time at the end of September this year, another poll will be conducted to measure the total effect of the campaign.

The EU organic logo guarantees that the product in question complies with the common European organic food standards – in the same way as the Danish organic label guarantees compliance with Danish food control rules. Throughout Europe, there are many different national control labels, which often make it difficult for producers to market their organic products in other European countries. The hope is therefore that in the long term the EU logo – as a supplement to national organic labels – will be able to solve the intra-EU trade problems that the organic food sector faces today.

Please see the folder on the campaign (PDF)

Please find more about the campaign on www.rodgrod.dk (Danish website)

Finland

The last organic Farming Research Station will close

The last research station in Finland, concentrating only on organic food and farming research, will be closed down in June 2006. This decision was taken by MTT Agrifood Research Finland, a research expert body operating under the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The fields of Partala Research Station, 20 years under organic farming, will still be available for organic farming research. All personnel will be moved to Mikkeli research station in order to tighten work relations with The University of Helsinki Rural Institute, which is to focus on education and research of organic food and farming. The reason for this decision was to get more efficiency by having more critical mass of researchers by putting more people to work together, and by focussing resources.

Correspond to Arja Nykänen, MTT Agrifood Research Finland (FI)

France

New research programme in organic farming

In 2004, the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) launched the second program in organic farming with a budget of 450.000 EURO (without wages) over the period 2004-2006. Part of this financing will be devoted to research exclusively achieved within INRA, another part of the research is to be undertaken in partnership with technical institutes (Union of Technical Institutes for Agriculture(ACTA), Union of Technical Institutes for Food (ACTIA)) within the framework of the platform of coordination animated by the research department (DGER) of the Ministry for Agriculture, Food, Fishing and Rural Businesses (MAAPAR).

Three topics were retained by the DGER platform on the basis of surveys carried out within INRA and organic farming technical institute (ITAB). Topic 1 concerns quality of corn proteins, baker value and quality of the bread in organic farming; topic 2, the analysis of conversion to organic farming and topic 3, environmental impact of organic farming. For each topic, one INRA-ACTA or INRA-ACTIA common project has been selected after evaluation within the platform of the agriculture ministry once scrutinized by the organic farming committee of INRA (CIAB) and in parallel by ITAB.

Four new specific INRA projects concerning parasitism of ruminants, participative selections, quality of sheep products and identification of potato genotypes adapted to the organic production in France have also been selected.

These new projects will start in June 2005 for a period of 2 years. Since 2000, 22 projects are still in progress.

Correspond to Annick Diolez, National Institute for Agricultural Research (FR)

Germany

First professorship for biodynamic agriculture

The University of Kassel-Witzenhausen is the first in Europe to hold a professorship for bio-dynamic agriculture. Since March 2005, Prof. Dr. Anthonie (Ton) Baars (48) from the Netherlands is heading this department. Before joining here, he had worked at the renowned Louis Bolk Institute in Driebergen in his native country, where he researched on grassland, animal health and animal breeding. In Germany, he will resume on these topics. Furthermore, he aims at communicating the basics of bio-dynamics as well as enabling students to solve interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary problems. The professorship is financed through a foundation funded by several organisations with a total of € 1,1 Mio. over a period of six years.

The University of Kassel-Witzenhausen has a history in organic agricultural research: In 1981, the first professorship for organic agriculture was established here, as well as the first and only university with an entire course of studies in this field. The process, to fully convert the faculty into organic agricultural sciences, started in 1996 and has been completed with the establishment of the biodynamic professorship. In February of 2005, a contract for co-operation between the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen and the agricultural faculty of Goettingen University was signed, to enable the use of each other’s potential in studies and research.

Further information (in German) including contact address here

Ethical management in the organic sector

While the conventional sector has been trying to polish its image since several years with specific measures, the organic sector never had this problem. There never was a reputation deficit, as organic agriculture already started off with a highly ethical claim. The current situation in the natural foods business, complete with its changes and risks, emphasises that ethical management is in fact a good idea. Especially the organic branch is very dependant on its social and ethical image. Hence, the implementation of a value management system would be a valuable asset.

Within the Federal Organic Farming Scheme a feasibility study was elicited to check whether there would be a possibility to introduce a certified ethical or value management system for the natural food sector. The aim is to get an active involvement of companies in this sector into the implementation of such an ethical management system. It can have an internal as well as an external benefit for the companies: internally it will help the employee to identify themselves with the employer and the orientation towards its values. Externally, this systematic management of values will help to communicate corporate citizenship, credibility and a moral reputation to the consumer. In the medium-term, the consumer is supposed to identify themselves with the ethical values of the product connected to the producer, which the consumer then will take into consideration of his purchase decision.

For further information, please check: http://orgprints.org/5211/ or

http://www.bundesprogramm-oekolandbau.de/projekt_04oe024.html

Holistic methods for the differentiation of organic food from conventional food approved

The growing market of organic food products demands for product oriented quality control. One major concern is the differentiation of organically grown from conventionally grown food. A project under the Federal Organic Farming Scheme aims to validate certain holistic methods according to ISO 17025 and to test which method can differentiate products from different farming systems statistically.

Both aims could be achieved. Based on documented and tested laboratory procedures samples from different farming systems (defined field trials, e.g. DOC-trial at FIBL/CH) could be successfully discriminated by several methods. All methods were tested with coded samples for their capability to whether they can differentiate food samples from different farming systems as well as food samples from variety trials. The samples (carrots, wheat, corn, apples) have been coded and sent around at the same time from a third independent institution (OEL-FAL, Trenthorst). Therefore the results achieved from different methods could be compared.

The methods “copperchloride-crystallisation”, “fluorescence excitation spectroscopy” and “physiological amino acid status” were able to discriminate and group all samples. In addition with the methods “fluorescence excitation spectroscopy” and “physiological amino acid status” it was even possible to identify correctly which sample was from which agricultural system. Tested electro-chemical methods did not show replicable results.

Future projects will show, if the proven methods are also able to differentiate food products from organic versus conventional farming systems when samples are collected from the market rather than being under controlled conditions. In order to do a comparative analysis of plant resources from conventional and organic systems the contents of secondary plant ingredients are determined and sensorial investigations carried out. Further investigations consider if the location of production and type of cultivar have a higher or lower impact on the quality of secondary plant ingredients than the farming system, organic versus conventional, itself.

More information: http://orgprints.org/4815/ or http://www.bundesprogramm-oekolandbau.de/suchergebnisse_projekte.php

Research results transferred into practice

The investment into research projects is only meaningful if the results reach the specifically targeted groups and reduce distance between research and practice. Therefore the Federal Organic Farming Scheme (FOFS) is supporting knowledge transfer as well as research projects.

One important part of the transfer activities within the FOFS is the current project consisting of hundreds of seminars and workshops for farmers, processors and traders. In this project the German Federation of Organic Food Enterprises (BÖLW) is co-ordinating these measures of knowledge transfer between research on the one side and practitioners on the other side. Extension agents and representatives of organic associations are the key persons to assure the systematic and effective organisation of seminars. The structure of the BÖLW functioning as an umbrella organisation ensures common arrangements regarding the themes including the spatial and chronological distribution as well as the collection and analysis of feedbacks.

In a two-step transfer system extension agents and representatives of organic associations translate recent research results into practical recommendations and present these to involved practitioners. Sometimes scientists themselves present their findings in collaboration with extension agents. This process is aimed to gain new research questions from the stakeholders side.

More information at http://www.bundesprogramm-oekolandbau.de/suchergebnisse_projekte.php

EkoConnect - International Centre for Organic Agriculture of Central and Eastern Europe

EkoConnect was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organisation. The office is situated in Dresden, very close to many East European partners. EkoConnect is especially supporting the information transfer from the Central and East European countries (CEE) to Western Europe and vice versa. Within the EkoConnect framework the main focus lies on the transfer of knowledge, information, experiences and techniques and on working as a meeting platform for stakeholders of the organic sector.

In this context EkoConnect also offers information about current research activities which take place in the CEE countries respectively research findings from Western Europe which are interesting for CEE to improve the standard of organic production, processing and trading.

EkoConnect is a member of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

EkoConnect regularly publishes the multilingual „EkoConnect infoletter“. This letter is available in 7 languages (Bulgarian, English, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian and German) and is in Europe wide read by more than 1.200 experts, organisations and companies involved in organic farming in Central and Eastern Europe.

Further Information about EkoConnect as well as the subscription of the infoletter are available under www.ekoconnect.org

Correspond to Ute Williges, Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (D)

Norway

New research programmes in food and agricultural research

In 2005, two new research programmes within food and farming were launched in Norway, which combine general and organic agriculture. The programmes are “Norwegian food from sea and land” (2006-2011) and “Area and nature based industrial development” (2006-2011). The Food research programme focuses on the total food chain and innovation of new food products and products with increased quality. Thematically, the Food research programme covers all kinds of food production, including seafood. The Area programme supports research that is required to utilise the land and coast based resources for other economic purpose than production of food or forest. It also concentrates on research on trade policy (WTO etc.) and scientific support to regional and national policies. Most projects that are funded within these programs have to be partially funded by a commercial or public user (e.g. industry, farmers’ organisation etc). There will be a separate call for organic food and farming projects within these programmes in April 2006.

Two research projects (strategic programmes) of high relevance for organic food and farming were founded in 2005. The topics of these projects are sheep health and utilisation of plant nutrients in waste (bone meal, wood ash).

New government increases the support to organic farming

Since October 2005, Norway has a new government led by prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, with representatives from the Social Democrats, the Socialist Left party and the Centre party. The government has agreed to strengthen the public goals for organic agriculture, as well as the public resources to research. By 2015, 15% of the Norwegian food production, as well as 15% of the food consumption, should be organic. The right of farmers to use their own seeds and other plant propagation material shall be ensured. The public resources used for research should rise to 3% of the gross national product within 2010.

The stakeholders representing organic agriculture have welcomed the strengthening of the official aims, which was previously targeted at achieving 10% organically managed farmland by 2010. Oikos, the main lobbying organisation, argues that official funding for organic agriculture should be increased, and that the funding for research within organic food and farming coming from the annual agreement between the government and the farmers’ organisations should be increased from the present 1 mill. € to 2.5 mill. € per year.

Norwegian study presented at the 2005 ISOFAR/IFOAM congress in Australia

A review of several farm level studies of dairy production across Europe clearly demonstrates that the utilisation of input N decreases with the intensity of the farming system. There were no differences between organic and conventional dairy systems, but as most of the investigated organic farms had relatively small amounts of purchased inputs, they performed well in this respect. This highlights that the aim of self-sufficiency on farm level is important for the creditability of organic farming as environmental friendly. The results were presented at the IFOAM/ISOFAR congress in Australia by Marina A. Bleken from the University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway, who has conducted the study in co-operation with Håvard Steinshamn and Matthias Koesling from Bioforsk - Norwegian Institute for Agriculture and Environmental Research, Organic Food and Farming Division (formerly Norwegian Centre for Ecological Agriculture, NORSØK), and Erling Thuen (UMB). The study has recently been accepted for publication in the journal AMBIO. For more details, contact the authors; marina.bleken@umb.no or havard.steinshamn@norsok.no.

Bioforsk - Norwegian Institute for Agriculture and Environmental Research Three research institutes have merged from January 2005 to form the research institute Bioforsk. The partners are the Norwegian Crop Research Institute, Norwegian Centre for Ecological Agriculture (NORSØK) and Norwegian Centre for Soil and Environmental Research.

A separate division will be responsible for research and developmental work within organic food and farming. This is Bioforsk Organic Food and Farming Division, formerly NORSØK, located at Tingvoll. In Norwegian, the name will be Bioforsk – Økologisk. Formally, the foundation NORSØK will continue to exist, to observe that Bioforsk takes care of its aims and visions in a good way. These aims are to support and contribute to the development and growth of organic farming, and thereby contribute to a sustainable development of the society. NORSØK will also continue to own and manage the physical resources of Tingvoll farm. Bioforsk will be the leading Norwegian institute in the field of agricultural research, with about 500 employees divided into 7 divisions. Go to www.bioforsk.no for more information.


Correspond to Anne-Kristin Løes, Bioforsk - Norwegian Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Research

Sweden

Ongoing work with a new framework programme for organic research

The development of a new framework programme for research on organic production and consumption during the period 2007–2009 has now started in Sweden. A preliminary basis material including a brief contemporary analysis has been worked out in a group with representatives from the farming organizations, the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

This basis material will be discussed and problem areas will be defined at a workshop on Mars 14 to which all interested actors are invited to take part in. After the workshop a first draft of the frame programme, including a revision of already conducted research will be written and sent out for comments by all relevant actors. The final frame programme will be released in September. Centre for sustainable agriculture at SLU coordinates the process.

Contact person is Susanne.Johansson@cul.slu.se.

Evaluation of Swedish research on organic production

The Swedish parliament and government has since more than 15 years allocated substantial funding into research on organic production as part of a political effort to increase the extent of this land use. A large part of this funding has been distributed through Formas (The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning) or its predecessor SJFR (Swedish Council for Forestry and Agricultural Research). Other funding organisations have financially supported research within this area as well.

The board of Formas has recently decided upon an evaluation of this particular research, its’ scientific quality and societal impact. Formas collaborates in the evaluation with other funding bodies, i.e. Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research, The Swedish Board of Agriculture and SLU (The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), and its specific program “Ekoforsk”. The evaluation will be performed during the spring of 2006.

Together, the funding bodies have concluded that there will be two connected evaluations, one scientific evaluation (1) and one evaluation of societal impact (2). Individual projects owned by the funding bodies can either be considered in (2) or (1 + 2). The scientific evaluation will be performed by a group of internationally highly rewarded scientists, being mainly from outside the Nordic countries. The evaluation of societal impact will be performed by highly rewarded advisors and related persons connected to the extension of agricultural research in the Nordic countries.

The evaluation will be performed primarily on the programme level, but naturally based on relevant information about the individual projects. All projects that have been funded with at least 22 000 Euro during 1997–2004 will be evaluated, in case their funding has elapsed. In total there will be about 100 projects included in the evaluation, distributed on 60 principal investigators (PI).

The PI for each project, are asked to write one project description in English to support the scientific evaluation. To facilitate the evaluation of societal impact the PIs are expected to add some extra information in Swedish as regards outreach activities of the project. A short CV in English and one reprint/copy for a few key scientific publications will give the evaluators an impression of the scientific excellence of the PIs.

The extent and direction of the future research in this particular field is to a decisive degree depending on the outcome of the evaluation.

Correspond to Nilla Nilsdotter-Linde; CORE Organic and Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research