Back Ms. L. Clay
World Board Member for Australia, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), Germany
Greetings everyone.
It is indeed a pleasant occasion to be here in New Zealand. It is a great
honor to represent IFOAM at this Seventh International Kyusei Nature Farming
Conference. The sponsor, the International Nature Farming Research Center
is a part of our organic family, and it is rewarding to be updated on the
latest developments being undertaken. It is also wonderful to see so many
faces from all over the world.
My participation brings memories of coming to the IFOAM conference here
in Christchurch in 1994, where I was first exposed to the concept of Kyusei
Nature Farming and EM. I recall being wondrous and excited about the potential
of EM both from a practical farming perspective, as I am also an organic
farmer, and also from the role of extending my understanding and appreciating
the complexities and the interrelationships of nature.
At the onset, I do convey the greetings from IFOAM Headquarters in Germany,
especially from Mr. Berward Geier, who was due to attend this conference.
I also bring with me the very warm and sincere wishes of the Vice President
of IFOAM, Ms Suzanne Vaupel, who was also due to attend, but was unable
due to sickness. She sends her greetings and apologies from her sickbed.
I wish to state a few words about IFOAM. It is the worldwide umbrella for organic agriculture, established in 1972. Currently IFOAM has over 700 members from over 100 countries. Its mission is to represent the worldwide organic movement and provide a platform for exchange and cooperation, just as we are doing here at this conference.
The structure of IFOAM is very democratic; we meet every two years, soon
to become once in three years, at a General Assembly, where decisions are
made on the direction of IFOAM and its activities. The World Board is elected
at the General Assembly, and its mandate is to carry out the wishes of
the assembly. I hope to see all of you in Canada at the next IFOAM congress
in August this year, and also at the General Assembly, which follows soon
afterwards.
Brief outlines of the major activities of IFOAM are-
These are done through conferences, trade fairs and at the BioFac Trade
exhibition. The first took place in Japan in December, last year, and the
next will be in Nuremberg, Germany in February of this year. These programs
have associated activities developing in many places, such as in North
and Latin America. We also represent the organic movement at policy making
fora. For example; IFOAM has consultative status with the United Nations,
especially with the FAO and IUCN, the agriculture and nature conservation
arms of the UN. Recently, we have opened an office in Rome, Italy to liaise
closely with the UN, and now we have a very close association with that
super national organization. Another major task of IFOAM is to review and
develop IFOAM basic standards for agricultural produce. The General Assembly
takes part in developing the standards and defining what is organic. We
have our accreditation programs and Bio-Grow NZ is accredited with us.
This accreditation is the international guarantee system, which assures
a standard organic product on a global scale. Another agenda of IFOAM is
to build a platform for all stakeholders in organic agriculture. This includes
farmers, farm workers, consumers, processing industries, trade and society
at large. The membership of IFOAM is spread geographically and sector wise
globally, and hence IFOAM is in a unique position to be the platform for
dialogue within the agricultural sector and also with actors outside, such
as governments, international and regional organizations and also with
conventional agriculture.
Some of the specific programs that are being carried out at present by IFOAM are-
I would however like to consider one aspect of these, namely food security,
as it is important, interesting and strongly related to the work being
done through nature farming.
Despite significant increases in overall food production through industrialized
agriculture, it has not succeeded in establishing food security. Affluent
regions and social classes struggle with surplus production and consumption
while close to 20% of the world’s population live in situations very close
to undernourishment. This imbalance is primary due to social and economic
world orders or local systems, which are unable to distribute available
resources equitably. To support this claim, we quote the UN’s State of
the World Report of 2000, which states that nearly 80% of all malnourished
children in the developing countries in the early 1990s lived in nations
that boasted of food surpluses in the past.
The question of how and if organic or nature farming can provide for food
security is complex and needs discussion. Even if the size of the population
is not the reason as to why people starve, one must consider population
growth. As the population expands, more and more of Earth’s natural resources
are required to secure the needs of humankind. In the short term, food
requirements have been met with increasing use of fertilizers and agricultural
chemicals. Currently, with the situation of soil degradation, these systems
will lose long-term productivity and the capacity to provide sufficient
food.
One must ask the question - Who needs the food most? Increased food production
does not automatically increase food security. What is important is that
the producers must have access to technology and knowledge to produce food
and the people having the purchasing power to acquire it. The conventional
wisdom states that to double food supply, one needs to redouble and modernize
agriculture. While this has been successful in the past, there is a doubt
of the capacity of these systems to reduce poverty. The poor and hungry
need low cost and relatively freely available technologies to increase
local food production.
We do have a few choices to achieve this. One is to expand areas by converting
new lands to agriculture, but the resultant effect is that services of
forests, grasslands and areas of biodiversity are lost. The second option
is to increase per hectare production by the exporting countries, which
are mostly industrialized and developed, so that the food can be transported
and sold to those who need it. The third is to increase total farm productivity
in the developing nations, which really need food.
The success of modern agriculture in the recent decades has greatly masked
the significant externalities affecting natural and human capital, and
agriculture itself. The environmental and health problems of modern agriculture
have been documents widely, but it is only recently that the scale of costs
has been appreciated. Thus the central issues are-
Under these circumstances nature farming systems and also technologies
such as EM have a significant role to play in the future of food production,
the people and the future of our planet.
In conclusion, what remains fundamental to organic agriculture is the health
and welfare of the soil. However the real role of organic agriculture is
not only within the farm or with marketing opportunities. The real role
for organic agriculture and nature farming is to be a seed for a change
in the whole of our societies. Hence, for whatever reason and motivation
that we are gathered here at this conference to be a part of the organic
movement, let us breed the seed into a beautiful flower. This should be
our aim. I wish you all a very good conference.
Thank you.