Sustainable, regenerative, agroecological, organic. When it comes to food sustainability terms, it’s a minefield. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that recent research has revealed that many of us do not fully understand what they mean.
Food production is at the center of nature and climate crises. There is a clear need to change the way we eat and produce food, and there is a growing will to do so. However, this is particularly difficult to do in the face of confusing terminology.
As organic September is upon us, the time is ripe to clarify what organic production is (and is not), and how it fits in with the newer movements in agriculture. Is organic still the best option when it comes to eating sustainably?
Rob Percival, head of food policy at the Soil Association, the UK’s largest organic food certifier, explains that: “Agroecology and regeneration should be seen as broad terms, describing a nature-friendly approach to farming. A form of agriculture that gives back more than is necessary. “
For Percival, regenerative and agroecological are terms to broadly describe the reduction of pesticides and artificial fertilizers, the diversification of production and agriculture with nature rather than against it, while organic certification is the regulated version of this.
“Organic is the clearest and most defined example of agroecological and regenerative agriculture. The standards are defined in the law and behind them there is a certification process ”, he explains.
Percival states that organic production is always regenerative: “Organic standards are designed to generate regenerative results. We know that these standards meet. If you are buying organic products, you can be sure that it is really regenerative. ”
However, regenerative farming doesn’t have to mean organic certification, according to farmer and columnist Joe Stanley, who works on the Allerton Project, an initiative that looks at the impact of different farming methods on the environment.
“At the Allerton Project, we like to think that we are very environmentally friendly, with great biodiversity, but we are not organic,” says Stanley.
However, he adds: “Regenerative agriculture has clearly relied heavily on organic practice. Organic practice, if we are honest, is what everyone did 70 years ago and it is just that many of us have forgotten it and have used chemicals and fertilizers as a crutch ”.
That regenerative farming is more of a mindset and not a strict set of standards is seen as a good thing, as farmers can gradually implement environmentally friendly practices, rather than turning their entire farm organic, which can be daunting.
Stanley confirms that “within the farming community, there is often a mental block to the concept of organic,” and recounts how his family resisted the idea of converting their family farm to organic production.
“Weeds and reduced yields are all they associate with organic, ”he adds.
The conflict between farmers hesitating to go organic due to their historic ‘hippy’ image may still be holding the sector back, though new figures from Defra showing land converting to organic rose 11.6 percent this time. year suggests that things may be changing.
For Adele Jones, Deputy Executive Director of the Sustainable Food Trust (SFT), the problem is the lack of progress once farmers certify, with certification more as a checkbox exercise and less as a journey towards improved agriculture.
This is something the SFT is trying to address with a new ‘Global Agricultural Metric’, a new framework for measuring and standardizing farm sustainability and giving farmers the information to make changes.
“He’s kind of an inspector who comes looking for trouble,” says Jones, of the organic process. “And at the end of the day, it’s a relief if you’ve checked all the boxes and are certified for another year, rather than giving you information on whether your soil health was better than last year, or what is happening to the quality of the soil. water or its emissions.
“It doesn’t necessarily give you the set of tools you need to make continuous improvements,” he notes.
This concern is shared by Jyoti Fernandes, head of policy for The Landworkers’ Alliance, the union that represents small farmers, foresters and land workers.
“Our criticism of organic is that it doesn’t go far enough,” he says. “Them [organic farms] It can take care of the soil and have no use of pesticides, but it could be grown in a large monoculture, somewhere abroad, with luxury crops that can be exported.
“How are the salaries? Are you absorbing more water than you should? Is it distributed fairly? Is it affordable for all income groups? It could be owned by a large company that benefits from that instead of worker cooperatives ”, he emphasizes.
This is where the term agroecology fits into the mix. According to Fernandes, agroecology goes beyond the simple nature-friendly production methods found in organic farming. It links the entire food system, from workers’ rights to health, investigative power in the food system and corporate control, he explains.
“The [organic] the standards are something basic, they do not necessarily cover all the aspects of agroecology as well as the social aspects ”.
But despite the shortcomings, Fernandes underlines: “I really believe in organic. I just want it to go to another level. “
Although not enshrined in certification itself, of course many organic farms and companies go above and beyond on things like worker rights and ethical supply chains. Either through the B Corp certification, which gives equal weight to social and environmental sustainability, or by writing its own code of ethics for suppliers.
Perhaps the real power of organic extends beyond its market share. Proponents and pioneers of organic farming have long been influencing the debate on sustainable food, even before the destructive effects of industrial farming became apparent. Sharing knowledge in a more practical way is also common, with schemes like Innovative Farmers where organic principles of working with nature are shared across the broader agricultural sector.
So where will organic be in ten years? Will you continue to be the pioneer in organic food standards? Or maybe it will be the baseline for a new era of agriculture, combining the impacts of food, people and carbon. Or, perhaps, we could even have a future where there is no need for any certification, and the principles of sustainable eating are properly entrenched, recognized and rewarded, and accessible to all.