Rodale Institute at COP15: Organic ag + climate network launched

By Eliav Bitan

Wednesday, Dec. 16 – Copenhagen, Denmark: Walking between meetings today, thick snowflakes fell in the twilight. Gorgeous.

The day began at 8 a.m. when I set off for the Bella Center (photos of Belle Center activities) the area where nonprofit exhibits are housed. While talking with visitors to the IFOAM booth, I met Peter Melchett, president of the Soil Association (the leading organic certifier in the UK, and our collaborator in preparing for this summit). We had a good chat about soil carbon, strategies for incentives and organics in general.

I walked with Andre Leu, Organic Federation of Australia President and IFOAM world board member, through the center. A notable encounter was with a leader of an indigenous African people, the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta. After seeing our materials and a brief conversation, he invited organic leaders to come work with him and his people in Nigeria.

After lunch, we went to the office of the Danish Farm and Agriculture Group, which includes both the Farm Union and Food producers. This NGO works closely with Danish government and organic farmers. We were there to be part of the initial meeting of the Roundtable on Organic Agriculture and Climate Change.

We spent three hours finalizing a constitution for the group, including ground rules and planned actions. What I am most excited about is a set of plans to develop methodologies to include organic farmers around the world in international carbon crediting schemes, whether they are carbon funds or cap and trade markets. There are also strong plans to bring together scientific data and policy positions on the topic of organic agriculture and climate change from around the world. Leaders at this inaugural meeting told me they felt that its accomplishments justified their entire trip.

Informal meetings within the group continued afterwards, over meals and into the wee hours: it’s 1 am and many of us are still sitting at our computers in the kitchen of the IFOAM suite of rooms, planning tomorrows' events and wrapping up the day.

We have two presentations in the city of Copenhagen planned for Thursday, but things are changing every minute.

Warm wishes from cold Denmark,

Eliav

Eliav Bitan is policy and partnerships associate for the Rodale Institute
Other RI@COP15 posts

 Background: Organic in Africa brings multiple benefits

Climate change will severely affect African agriculture and the many millions of people who are dependent on it. There is urgent need for adaptation of the agricultural sector to the changes in climate and weather patterns, which include changed rainfall patterns, a decrease in arable land and more extreme weather events, especially drought and flooding.

“The contribution of organic agriculture to climate change adaptation in Africa” highlights the many ways that encouraging soil-healthy, biodiversity-building farming can improve food security while fighting climate change. Rodale Institute assisted with this IFOAM publication which brings together research and production experience from West, East and North Africa to highlight organic potential.

 It outlines how organic agriculture:

• Builds soil structure and soil fertility
• Rehabilitates poor soils and brings degraded soils back into productivity
• Increases the water retention capacity of soils
• Reduces erosion caused by wind and water as well as by overgrazing
• Reduces the financial risk of farm operations as farmers are less dependent on external inputs

Combining decreased arable land with an increasing population, per capita food pro¬duction is expected to decline sharply—up to 50 percent by 2020— if current approaches are maintained.

Adaptive organic farming practices include those which preserve/restore soil organic matter, soil structure and water holding ca¬pacity, and are therefore able to maintain productivity in the event of drought, irregular rainfall events, with floods and rising temperatures.

Case studies from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya and Ethiopia (Tigray region) show how healthy soil, biological nitrogen fixation, water harvesting combined with organic fertility (green manures), biodiversity, intensive subsistence farming to re-start community self-sufficiency and farmer engagement.

Starting often in dry, highly degraded soils, skillful introduction of pioneer crops able to survive in harsh conditions starts a biological succession of cascading improvements. By selecting the best-adapted seed varieties able to be saved, farmers improve crop genetics natural by selecting those which survive best on organic fertity, without being tied to external commercial and often expensive inputs for success.