Sustainable use of natural resources rather than exploitation. Full transparency of the value chain rather than green washing. Organic 3.0 is ready to start at Biofach 2014, world’s leading trade fair for organic food at Nuremberg. After an impressive development of organic agriculture in the past decades, the future will face problems in global food production such as poverty, social injustice and hunger which prevail in many rural areas. Moreover, agriculture contributes significantly to climate change and loss of biodiversity on the planet. Hence, the launch of Organic 3.0 at Biofach, with the purpose of strategy building and innovation towards a more positive impact.
«The movement is looking into numerous issues such as nutrition and human health, soil and water conservation, free access to seeds, land ownership, animal welfare, and it will lobby for true cost accounting and against perverse subsidies», says Markus Arbenz, the executive director of Ifoam. The market research company Organic Monitor estimates the global market for organic products in 2012 reached almost 50 billion euros. The leading market is the United States with 22.6 billion euros, followed by Germany and France. The countries with the highest per capita spending were Switzerland (189 euros) and Denmark (159 euros).
Moving from consumers to producers, according to the FiBL-Ifoam survey, approximately 80% of a global total of 1.9 million organic producers are located in developing countries, especially India (600.000) and then Uganda, Mexico and Tanzania. From a farmland perspective, a total of 37.5 million hectares were organic at the end of 2012. An increase of almost 200.000 hectares was reported compared with 2012. In Africa, organic land increased by seven percent and in Europe by six percent.
