Vision of breeding for organic agriculture

Summary

Taking the current breeding situation as the starting point, a number of scenarios are described for each animal sector which could gradually lead to a system of breeding which is more organic both in its aims and in the chain-based approach. The naturalness of the breeding techniques is an important factor in considering the available options. The different scenarios served as a basis for the interviews and discussions with livestock farmers and social organisations. We have established that the farmers and organisations consider it important for organic agriculture to work on developing a breeding system which follows the principles of organic agriculture. The most important reasons for this are that: (1) consumers expect all production factors in the chain to be of organic origin, (2) most livestock farmers currently use conventional breeding techniques which fall short of the organic requirements on a number of points, such as the use of artificial reproduction techniques and mono-functional breeding for production.