“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.
A nation is considered food secure when a sufficient, stable and safe supply of food is available to satisfy basic needs and market demand; this does not prevent hunger in marginal areas or negative trade balance as a result of food import dependency. A household is considered food secure when it can produce or obtain enough food to meet all of its members’ nutrition needs.
National or household food security does directly address the fact that over-exploitation of natural resources jeopardize the very future of the household farm enterprise. It is therefore useful to consider sustainable food security through which national and household food security is assured and natural resources are managed sustainably.
Hunger is tightly linked with poverty, and in particular with employment. Extreme poverty in developing countries fell from 28 per cent in 1990 to 19 per cent in 2002. If economic growth rates are sustained in these countries, global poverty will fall to 10 per cent by 2015.
However, past trends and projections suggest that poverty reduction does not benefit proportionally among the poor who are also undernourished, the majority of whom live in rural areas (FAO, 2006d). Hunger will not be reduced without investments in rural economies and livelihood opportunities.
Governance in the food supply chain is key to sustainable food security. Food and agricultural inputs provisioning from external sources increases vulnerability to economic fluctuations, dependency and marginalisation.
In particular, open trading and financial systems hinder smallholders’ ability to produce for themselves, be competitive on the markets or purchase their food. The food self-reliance of smallholders and of the majority of the poor can be enhanced by re-localising food systems where food is most needed.
Sustainable food security therefore encompasses MDG 1 on alleviating hunger and poverty to also address MDG 7 on environmental sustainability and MDG 8 on partnerships. Although comprehensive assessments on the contribution of organic agriculture to sustainable food security have not been made, the sections below consider the potential application of organic attributes to hunger alleviation, rural employment, provision of environmental services and localised food systems.
Organic Agriculture Contribution to Household Nutrient Intake:
By diversifying and optimising farm productivity, reducing the need for purchased inputs and, eventually, developing households’ market-orientation for earning additional income, organic systems contribute to hunger and poverty alleviation. Every 10 per cent increase in crop yield reduces the number of income-poor by an average 7.2 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Improved income allows farmers to buy food in what would otherwise be “hungry months”.
Harnessing the lucrative gains that come from marketing organic commodities can allow seasonal or permanent diversification away from staples into high-value alternatives such as vegetables, depending on the degree of physical and human capital investment and agro- ecosystem flexibility (e.g. drainage costs in tropical lowland rice are prohibitive).
Although in most cases, staple food systems will remain dominant sources of food supply (rice occupies 50 per cent of Asia’s agricultural lands) and off- farm activities are more dependable sources of income, organic diversification offers higher returns from land and labour investments.
However, the diversification start-up is often associated with high-price volatility which needs to be countered with improved marketing intelligence. Secure land and water use rights are more important preconditions for investments in organic diversification and commercialisation than for other forms of agriculture.
Organic school and home gardens that cultivate traditional plants and animal breeds offer a promising option for improving the nutritional status of poor people both in rural and peri-urban areas. Such systems greatly contribute to food availability, safety of children and nutritional status of families.
In many cases, poorly known varieties become income generation opportunities through marketing of processed specialty foods (e.g. Chenopodium quinoa) or medicinal, aromatic or dye plants, which are in high demand on domestic and export markets.
Organic Agriculture Contribution to Transitional Food Emergency Situations:
Poor households cannot afford production risks and maximum yields are not as important as securing food for the family. Organic fields show lower fluctuations in yields and diversification is the best assurance in cases of a single crop failure, environmental adversity or socio-economic shocks.
With the intensification of weather extremes, increasing the resilience in agro-ecosystems to weather has become an imperative, especially in agriculture-based economies.
Organic Agriculture Contribution to Healthy Diets:
The increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases associated with changing diets and lifestyle account for 58 per cent of premature deaths due to heart disease, diabetes and cancer, along with hunger and malnutrition. In China, 8.1 per cent of households have an underweight and an overweight member within the same household.
Although modern food patterns have greatly contributed to combating under-nutrition, the specialisation of agricultural systems into a few staple foods has exacerbated micro-nutrient deficiencies. Low dietary diversity and related micronutrient deficiencies (e.g. vitamin A, iodine, iron) affect more than half of the children in developing countries.
This is a major public health concern, usually addressed through supplementation and food fortification but with low efficiency, especially in targeting vulnerable segments of population.
Promoting a diverse local food supply, accessible to poor households, has proven to be a simple and successful way to improve malnutrition. The viability of an organic field is synonymous to a diverse agro-ecosystem, both in space and time. The cropping diversity found on organic fields, coupled with rotation crops of minor economic value but high micro- nutrient and protein content, enriches household diets and health.
Choosing to forego synthetic inputs requires using more underutilized seeds and breeds for their better resistance to pest, diseases and climatic stress. The reintroduction, selection and improvement of locally-adapted varieties make an invaluable contribution to “hidden hunger”, or dietary micronutrient deficiencies. Consumer surveys find that organic consumers have a better nutritional status, especially due to choices of “minor” legumes that contribute to healthier diets.
Organic Agriculture Contribution to Sustainable Food Security:
Organic Agriculture as a Robust National Employer:
Agriculture occupies 60 per cent of the population of developing countries while in developed countries it is 1 to 2 per cent of the population. However, agricultural employment remains a source of social and ecological well- being of global importance. In all countries, the replacement of agricultural labour with chemicals and machinery raises concerns about social stability (e.g. breakdown of communities, mass migration, large-scale urbanisation), as well as the devastating impact on the natural environment.
Replicating the system of industrial food production dominant in developed countries in developing countries where agriculture provides livelihoods for 2.5 billion people will increase the number of displaced, dispossessed and hungry, if no alternatives are created.
Agriculture is the main employer in rural areas and wage labour provides an important source of income for the poor. Thus, by being labour intensive, organic agriculture creates not only employment but improves returns on labour, including also fair wages and non-exploitive working conditions.
New sources of livelihoods, especially once market opportunities are reckoned, in turn revitalise rural economies and facilitate their integration into national economies. In several settings, it has been noted that increased control over resources (labour power, production system) develops self-awareness and collective self-help which lead to overcoming marginalisation.
Increasingly, organic agriculture is being adopted as a rural development strategy and vibrant organic communities can be observed in rural areas of many countries. In the UK, it is estimated that the move towards big farms has resulted in a 61 per cent decline in total income from farming and a 39 per cent decline in the average income per person employed in agriculture over the past 30 years.
Organic farms provide more than 30 per cent more jobs per ha than nonorganic farms and, thus, create employment opportunities. This ratio is further increased if on-farm processing and direct marketing are considered, because such enterprises are more likely fostered in organic systems. Rather than displacing the agricultural workforce, organic agriculture safeguards livelihoods by keeping people on the land and living from it.
Organic Agriculture as Provider of Global Environmental Services:
Avoided damage of organic agriculture on the global environment is chiefly achieved by omissions on the use of polluting substances such as nitrogen fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, as well as reduced anthropogenic impacts on desertification, biodiversity erosion and climate change.
It is becoming urgent to enhance, through organic agriculture, the development of skilled agricultural labour in order to make the transition away from the current fossil fuel dependent agricultural systems whilst maintaining food production.
Organic agriculture offers a great potential in local sourcing of diversified foods, through low carbon systems and shorter supply chains, to the extent possible. It is clear that certain food items can be produced in more energy- efficient settings than others; lamb production is less energy- intensive in New Zealand pastures than in Netherlands; it is more energy-efficient to ship an apple from South Africa than cold store local apples in Italy in order to offer counter-seasonal produce. Information on total energy use, based on full cycle indicators is needed for informed consumer choices.
Direct marketing, a typical feature of organic supply systems, creates connection and trust between farmers and consumers on the quality claim. For example in the UK, direct and local marketing is found on 39 per cent of organic farms compared to 13 per cent of non-organic farms.
Short supply chains and re-localised food systems, while still unexplored, are also drivers for positive environmental impacts. For instance, reduced distances between production and consumption reduce transportation needs and, thus, energy use.
Greater national food self-sufficiency would contribute to addressing new challenges such as global fossil fuel shortages, climate change and transport breakdowns through greater resilience in the food chain.
Organic agriculture provides a powerful incentive to de-industrialise agriculture by reducing fossil-fuel inputs and potentially devoting production primarily to local consumption. New ownership models are expanding worldwide, e.g. Community Supported Agriculture, whereby consumers support producers for regular direct supply of organic produce. Most important, organic agriculture could reduce the energy footprint of food through low carbon farming systems and markets.
Organic Agriculture for Local Food Provisioning:
Food import surges have become more frequent since the mid-1990s and the increasing trend of food-import dependency is a source of concern as many developing countries are turning from net agricultural exporters to net food importers. The past 50 years have seen a persistent decline, averaging 2 per cent per year, of real commodity prices, posing problems to the income of farmers and national economies that depend heavily on a few commodities for export earnings (e.g. coffee in Ethiopia, cotton in Burkina Faso).
In agriculture-based economies, insufficient farming income translates into lack of sufficient purchasing power to pay for food and imported goods. Trade reform can be damaging to food security in the short to medium term if it is introduced without a policy package designed to offset the negative effects of liberalization.
The debate in the WTO negotiations is in fact considering the designation of “Special Products”, based on the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development needs. It would be interesting to see if the case could be made for some organic commodities, especially for small countries that wish to compete with quality.
For developing countries, trade-based food provisioning limits the competitiveness of smallholders and the ability of the market-marginalised to cater for their needs. Considering that 75 per cent of the poor live on the land and most are farmers or farm workers, it is in smallholder agriculture where change is needed to increase the food supply.
Factors that contribute to stagnating domestic production are low output prices, high input costs, adverse weather, pest and disease outbreaks, and consumer preference (FAO, 2007b).
The fact that poor farmers often live in areas where there are few employment alternatives and agricultural inputs are not supplied makes organic agriculture a unique alternative for local food provisioning, provided that agro- ecological knowledge is available.
Sustainable intensification of available natural resources in subsistence-oriented regions has proven to raise smallholders’ food self-reliance and, eventually, decrease national food import requirements.
Organic agriculture offers advantages in terms of enhancing food production where it is most needed by decreasing dependence on external inputs and increasing agro- ecosystem performance. A modelling for large-scale organic conversion in sub-Saharan Africa suggests that agricultural yields would grow by 50 per cent, thus increasing local access to food and reducing food imports.
Organic agriculture is also an opportunity to commercialise smallholder agriculture. A market-oriented food system, if available, offers additional income generating opportunities that allow small producers to compete with quality while encouraging local food supply.
Higher organic prices reflect production cost and internalize environmental and social values. Higher food prices also increase food import bills and may compromise low-income food buyers in the short run. However, higher food prices represent higher incomes to producers, with positive implications on longer term economic growth and agricultural development.
The Right to Adequate Food:
In the Rome Declaration on World Food Security (1996), Heads of State and Government “reaffirmed the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”. An analysis of major food commodities of 102 developing countries during 1982-2003 can be found in FAO, 2007b.
The Right to Adequate Food, adopted in 2004, complements the food security concept and programmes with seven human rights principles: human dignity, accountability, empowerment, nondiscrimination, participation, transparency and rule of law.
The Right to Adequate Food is defined as “the right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensure a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.”
A rights-based approach provides the powerless with leverage to address the causes of food insecurity and poverty. It strengthens local communities to take care of their own members. Besides its market pull, organic agriculture upgrades traditional knowledge through interactive learning, strengthening farmers’ analytical abilities and creativity.
Organised rural communities stand-up for their rights and extend entrepreneurial skills. In doing so, organic management revalorizes indigenous knowledge and community structures which have eroded for a variety of reasons (e.g. land alienation, population pressure, migration) and empowers social systems to control their own food supply. Furthermore, organic agriculture is in line with the right to adequate food that consumers demand.
The Voluntary Guidelines for the Right to Food (FAO, 2005) includes guidance for an enabling environment. They are used here to provide a basis for analysing compliance of organic agriculture with their recommendations.
Democracy and Governance in the Food Supply Chain:
Organic agriculture encourages transparency through labelling, seeks compliance with social justice standards, empowers individuals and civil society and legally protects the organic claim. However, social justice standards remain those of the private sector and are not contemplated in government organic technical regulations.
Economic Development:
Organic agriculture is a feasible option for rural development, it invests in natural and human capital to improve livelihoods, provides fair return from labour and employment and offers affordable technology to enhance productivity of poor rural communities.
Market Systems:
The organic label prevents non-competitive practices in markets, develops corporate social responsibility of all market players, protects consumers against fraudulent practices, develops local and regional markets, takes advantage of new market opportunities and accounts for shortcomings of the market mechanisms in protecting the environment and public goods.
However, as organic supply systems enter the mainstream, contract farming and large agribusiness involvement is reducing profit to producers and transforming organic commodities into cash crops which could jeopardize food security at production sites. In addition, large organic enterprises are lowering environmental standards and reducing farmers’ economic gains and control over their production systems.
Current efforts such as increasing organic trade transparency and implementing ethical trading are practical initiatives for safeguarding organic principles from short-sighted profits.
Institutions:
Countries with organic agriculture action plans have created national inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms through which private sector and civil society participate in managing the organic food system. Inter-sectoral cooperation and public-private dialogue become a necessity when entering a regulated organic supply chain.
Stakeholders:
The organic system encompasses public sector regulation, civil society knowhow and private sector entrepreneurship. Organic agriculture contributes to the integration of small producers into highly demanding markets. The rules and relationships within the new commercialised food systems are somewhat mediated through the certification process and higher transaction costs are counter-balanced by organic price premiums and improved management skills.
Legal Framework:
More than 60 countries have organic regulations at some stage of development, mainly to ensure fair competition and, in some countries, to facilitate conversion to organic management for agri-environmental purposes. Targeting vulnerable and small holders must be further considered.
Access to Resources and Assets:
Organic agriculture offers opportunities for work, safeguards drinking water quality, protects and sustainably uses agro-biodiversity and traditional knowledge, maintains ecosystem carrying capacity for food production for present and future generations, and supports private and public sector initiatives to enable efficient food production by all farmers, in particular poor farmers.
Land access and infrastructure development are independent from organic management but land reform and other policies could be linked to good agricultural management regimes.
Food Safety and Consumer Protection:
Organic foods have streamlined procedures for inspection, certification and accreditation, based on Codex Alimentarius (FAO, 2001) in accordance with WTO agreements (SPS and TBT), including stakeholders exercising controls on their own production and handling practices and by auditing those controls through participatory guarantee systems. Organic agriculture facilitates consumer choice by ensuring appropriate information on labels and providing technical advice and capacity building in good management practices.
Nutrition:
Organic agriculture increases the availability of nutritious food (especially those rich in micro-nutrients), strengthens dietary diversify and healthy eating habits, prevents unbalanced diets that may lead to malnutrition, obesity and degenerative diseases, promotes gardens both at home and schools and encourages customs and traditions on matters related to food.
An Alternative Model for Sustainable Development:
Organic food systems ought to be evaluated in a wide development context which includes the fact that agriculture has often had a detrimental impact on the environment (e.g. land degradation, water pollution, GHG emissions, biodiversity extinction and environmental services erosion) and on rural societies (e.g. disenfranchised farmers and discredited agriculture and knowledge).
Although organic agriculture is not a panacea and has its own limits in addressing challenges posed by modern lifestyle, its external environmental costs are much lower than those of conventional agriculture and, in some areas, it can reverse problems of natural degradation.
Moreover, non-certified organic systems increase food availability and access exactly in those locations where poverty and hunger are most severe. Increased food performance in developing countries, through conversion of subsistence systems to organic management, is more than a serious proposition. The challenge is neither agronomic nor economic but sociopolitical.
The challenges facing agriculture – old challenges such as increasing world population and new challenges such as high climate variability – are equally characterized by globalisation of energy flows, be they ecological, economic or societal. More than ever, inter-connectedness of ecosystems and people affects the performance of the food system of households and nations.
Issues considered in evaluating organic agriculture performance relate tightly to prior management regimes (e.g. yield comparison depends on whether the previous systems was managed with high or low external inputs), as prevailing conventional and subsistence practices and objectives differ (e.g. labour requirements can be a constraint or an opportunity).
Although there is still room for improving its performance, organic agriculture continues to provide alternative models (or better alternatives) for sustainable development:
1. As a response to the pollution created by conventional agricultural production, organic farmers developed non-chemical ways to farm their land successfully;
2. As a response to the lack of adequate technologies and technical advice, organic farmers became innovators and experts in adaptive management;
3. As a response to institutional marginalisation, organic communities came together to provide some risk-bearing economies of scale, thus creating self- reliant and vibrant rural economies;
4. As a response to costly third-party certification, grower groups developed participatory guarantee systems to differentiate their products on local markets;
5. As a response to long distance food procurement, organic entrepreneurs developed short supply chains;
6. As a response to industrialisation of food chains, the organic community began discussions on the enforcement of fair working conditions and trade transparency;
7. As a response to energy concerns, the organic community began looking for efficient ways to put the concept of food miles into practice.
Organic agriculture has developed in the absence of information and infrastructure, within farmers’ self-imposed production goals of minimal reliance on external inputs and celebration of non-economic values such as ecological stewardship and social equity. Consumer demand for these values has fuelled a high level of diversity in the “modern” organic community.
We see today an array of realities – from the “small is beautiful” farmer visited by loyal consumers for direct pick-up, to contracted farmers supplying large transnational corporations and booming “organic lines” in supermarkets – all of which deserve attention.
Despite the organic community’s challenge to improve its performance and maintain its principles while catering for food imperatives, organic agriculture offers lessons on:
1. De-commodification of food by celebrating the environmental and social-cultural values of agriculture;
2. Restoring food self-reliance and transparency in the food chain by increasing the right to choose of producers and consumers;
3. Producing food at low cost for the poor and market-marginalised by harnessing ecological processes;
4. Valuing traditional knowledge and indigenous goods such as agro-biodiversity;
5. Creating cooperative learning processes and rural- based networks;
6. Developing social responsibility throughout the food supply chain;
7. Establishing food quality assurance and traceability procedures.
Whether market-oriented or a survival strategy in poorly-endowed settings, organic agriculture may be considered a “small economy” or a “laboratory of harmless innovations” that deserves preferential treatment – and encouragement.
With a view to encourage farmers, farm workers, gardeners, pastoralists, aqua-culturists, forest dwellers, consumers and business communities of all kinds to strive democratically within the organic food model, key actions are required to establish a conducive policy environment and build capacities.