ORC’s Nic Lampkin attended a conference on a future national policy for organic farming in Lisbon on 18th November, marking the start of Portuguese organic week. The conference, organised by Interbio, was part of a process of the organic movement in Portugal working together to build a strategy for organic farming from the bottom up. Ideas for key actions have been canvassed and a process of engagement with the new Portuguese government is in place. The Secretary of State for Agriculture spoke positively about the need to develop a better framework for organic policy in Portugal, as the sector had seen a sharp decline despite significant increases in consumer demand and the development of chains of organic supermarkets in Lisbon and other cities. The developments in Portugal are in sharp contrast to the dramatic developments in neighbouring Andalucia, where an ambitious action plan has led to substantial growth in the organic sector. Nic Lampkin presented a paper (PDF 2MB) on the policy relevance of organic farming in terms of delivery of public goods, while Otto Schmid from the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FIBL) presented the key conclusions from the EU-funded research project on organic action plans, ORGAP.
More on organic action plans.
