Biotech Updates

Organic Agriculture and Food Security

May 11, 2007

In a paper “Organic Agriculture and Food Security” presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at a recent conference on organic agriculture and food security, FAO recognizes the economic importance of organic agriculture and its potential to contribute to global food supply. The paper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of organic agriculture with regards to its contribution to food security, analyzes attributes of organic supply chains against the Right to Food framework, and proposes policy and research actions for improving the performance of organic agriculture at the national, international and institutional levels.

“The strongest feature of organic agriculture is its reliance on fossil-fuel independent and locally-available production assets; working with natural processes increases cost-effectiveness and resilience of agro-ecosystems to climatic stress,” the paper says.

 Read the press release at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2007/1000550/index.html.