12892: Organics Olympiad 2007 - Perspectives on the Global State of Organic Agriculture

Paull, John (2007) Organics Olympiad 2007 - Perspectives on the Global State of Organic Agriculture. Paper presented at AGRI-FOOD XIV, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 25 -29 November, 2007.

Summary

Organic food has been described as the world’s fastest growing food sector, and many countries have now set targets for conversion to Organic Agriculture. The stated goal of the organic movement is the adoption worldwide of Organic Agriculture. That task has a long path to travel, with Organic Agriculture currently accounting for 1.8% of worldwide agricultural land. One strategy for success in any endeavour, is: find out who "the winners” are, identify what they are doing, and do that; and there is a corollary to this maxim. Which countries are leaders in the adoption of Organic Agriculture? In the absence of a single comprehensive index of organic-ness, this paper identifies 12 indices of organic-ness, and presents the leadership by country, for each of these indices. A portmanteau-index of overall organics leadership is examined. Based on longitudinal data, projections are presented for future Organic Agriculture scenarios, and they indicate that under the historic worldwide rates of organic uptake, then all agricultural land would be converted to organic within 27 years under the scenario of compound increase, and in 584 years under the scenario of arithmetic increase.

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