Special issue of Organic Agriculture — Organic 3.0

Summary

It is an honor to be able to present this special issue of Organic Agriculture: Organic 3.0 for the Organic World Congress in India 2017. In this issue, we have collected a number of papers relevant for the theme Organic 3.0. This special issue of Organic Agriculture about Organic 3.0 is published in connection to the science track “Innovative research for Organic 3.0” at the Organic World Congress in Delhi, India, November 2017. In the foreword to the proceedings (Rahmann et al. 2017), the challenges listed correspond well to those described and discussed in these five papers. The fact that the paper by Rahmann et al. (2016) that has been online in Organic Agriculture since December 2016, already after 6 months has been downloaded more than 3,000 times shows the great interest in this subject. Together, these papers give a valuable basis for the further discussion of Organic 3.0 and the future development for the organic sector and beyond. Organic agriculture—whether 2.0 or 3.0—can be one option to solve future problems, and the ideas behind organic agriculture should be integrated as much as possible in many types of agriculture: agroecological, small-holder, conventional, conservation tillage, etc. But organic agriculture should also learn from conventional and other types of agriculture and if necessary take a critical view on, e.g., minimum requirements that result in negative effects on public goods. Governments, NGO’s, farmers, researchers, and other stakeholders should all contribute to developing organic as well as other forms of agriculture. It is our hope that this special issue will be one step in bringing organic and truly sustainable agriculture forward.