Reflections from a week in the world of organic

The middle of February is always a heartfelt time for the organic movement, but it’s nothing to do with St. Valentine and everything to do with a small city in Southern Germany which annually plays host to the world’s largest organic gathering, known as Biofach. It’s always a great chance to connect, share and learn from the organic community from across the globe as well as contribute to the future direction of our vibrant movement both in the UK and around the world.

This year, our new vision of making organic affordable, available and accessible to everyone in society was very much at the forefront on my mind. We know the UK lags behind many places in the world – for example, only 3% of our farmland is organic, compared to over 10% on average across the EU, with some countries much higher – like Austria at 27.5%. Biofach is a great opportunity to learn about what’s working elsewhere and make connections to help us scale our impact and accelerate our progress. Ironically, even though the UK isn’t at the forefront when it comes to the organic land area and market, the Soil Association has a strong and influential international reputation and a track record of working in service of the global organic movement, particularly through IFOAM - Organics International and IFOAM Organics Europe , so it’s always nice to spend time focussing on this for a few days too. There’s so much to share, but here are some of my highlights...

The organic world

Despite much turmoil, the latest stats show nearly 1 million farmers switched to organic globally in 2022. There’s lots of reasons for this growth including steadily increasing market demand in most places and progressive public policies, particularly from governments who are recognising that organic delivers for rural livelihoods, gender equality, biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation and healthy diets, amongst, to name just a few. For example, all 27 nations across the EU have Organic Action Plans which set out how organic food and farming is going to be scaled and supported. This is the case across continents – we heard it from ministers and other policy makers from African, Asia and Europe over the course of the week. Closer to home, we learnt that the German government see organic as the model for the future development of the whole agricultural sector, driving innovation, which is why Germany’s got an ambitious 30% organic by 2030 land target and a full spectrum plan to make it happen. The EU Commission are dedicating 30% of the agricultural research budget to organic not only to support organic farming and reaching the 25% organic land area target they’ve set, but to also improve and encourage nature friendly agricultural practices more generally.

Organic for all

The role of public procurement – in other words the food that goes into public places like schools and hospitals – was also much discussed. There are some impressive stats flying around – in the city of Nuremberg, 80% of school meals are organic, and these kind of figures aren’t unusual in Europe. In many parts of Asia, local governments are heavily supporting more organic food in schools, hospitals and other public canteens because they can see the benefits it brings to the health of the local community, both in terms of how the land is managed as well as the food they eat.

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Women’s empowerment

The congress theme for Biofach focussed on the transformative power of women in agriculture, Studies have shown significant improvements in health, food security and economic status for women through organic farming. This was evidenced in the many sessions highlighting the incredible work happening around the world.

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International trade

Another important session convened by Alex Cullen explored how we could take a globally joined up approach to scaling organic, specifically in relation to the trade of fast-moving-consumer-goods and international markets (cereal and coffee anyone?!). There’s high jeopardy but high reward with the multi-national organisations that dominate this sector, which makes it extra important that organisations working with big brands, retailers and international trade networks are taking a joined-up approach to ensure that multinationals are working in ways that benefit the sector. Farmers, communities and consumers need to be the main beneficiaries of an expanding global market for organic.

Biofach is a great place to be for anyone trying to navigate the complexity around import and export regulation and the activities of different organic trade associations in key markets overseas. We’re lucky to have Lee Holdstock who helps our licensees chart the course through an ever-changing regulatory and trade landscape. He met with colleagues from trade associations around the world, as well as members of the organic team at Defra because it’s important we work closely to facilitate smooth international trade and collaborate to scale the sector. Although of course we’re in dire need or more home-grown production too – something highlighted in our just-published Organic Market Report.

Important conversations

Biofach is a great place to convene global conversations that matter, and which often mark the start of something bigger.

We know that ‘fairness’ is one of the four principles of organic agriculture, yet it’s often the topic that gets the least attention, especially in standards, rules and regulations. But things are changing. I moderated a session on how the organic sector is incorporating social justice into standards and regulation. We heard that Bhutan has incorporated it into its organic regulation, and there’s interest from regulators in other countries too. There are some excellent examples of private standards, such as BioSuisse and GOTS who have incorporated social justice in their standards, and we heard from a cooperative in Southern Italy called GOEL who shared how they successfully navigate the topic in areas where the mafia are everywhere. It’s clear that sharing experiences and approaches could help everyone engaged, or wanting to engage in this topic, so we’re planning a follow up workshop at the Organic World Congress later this year.

Fairness is so central to organic values. It’s no coincidence that the recent Get Fair About Farming campaign in the UK was initiated by organic pioneer Riverford. The European Commissioner for Agriculture - Janusz Wojciechowski - was right in his opening address when he said “farmers have a right to fair prices and fair incomes, and organic farmers can help maintain this right”

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As the dust settles on Biofach, and in the wake of the latest market report figures which show that the winds of change are blowing in favour of organic, we’ve got a big job ahead of us to put into place our vision for the organic sector. But we’re buoyed by the fact that change is both needed and possible, and we can work with the whole organic sector to make it so.