Braunschweig, Germany, 28 July 1997
by R. Krell
The Meeting was sponsored by the FAO Regional Office for Europe (REU), as one of the activities of the Sustainable Rural Environment and Energy Network (SREN) on the occasion of the International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture for Food, Energy and Industry (22-28 June 1997, Braunschweig, Germany). The organiser, the Federal Agricultural Research Centre, and FAO invited seven experts, of which six were present. In addition, four SREN coordinators, the four members of the European Research Network Advisory Committee (ERNAC), a special adviser, an observer from FAL and a REU representative were present (see List of Participants attached).
The purpose of the Meeting was to follow up on decisions taken by the SREN coordinators in 1993 to establish a research working group on organic farming within their Network. Expected results were:
1) Recommendations to REU on the usefulness and scope of research cooperation in organic farming in a European context.
2) A decision on a subject area for the first SREN working group on organic farming.
3) An agenda for action.
A report was prepared by Els Wynen on "Research on Biological Farming Methods in Europe, Perspectives, Status and Requirements" as a basis for discussions and was distributed to all participants before the Meeting. Each expert presented a short review of their institution's and/or country's research efforts on the topic plus comments on the conclusions and recommendations of the above-mentioned Report. These comments are presented separately. The Report, Comments, Minutes and Conclusions are planned to be published as REU Technical Series No. 53 and will be included on the REU WWW pages.
After a brief introduction of all the participants, the Chairman, R. Krell, FAO/REU, briefly presented the programme of the day and the background and objectives of this Meeting. Five of the seven invited experts’ brief presentations which followed, are reproduced here after E. Wynen's Report (K. Zimmermann, U. Niggli, V. Lund and R. Zanoli). At the last minute, due to family reasons, J. Tyburski was unable to attend. His report and comments were forwarded to the meeting by fax.
It was apparent from the main Report and all comments received, that basically everyone agreed on the need for better collaboration between researchers in this field. Everyone also agreed that a full-fledged ESCORENA network or at least a working group within SREN, is very much needed and highly welcomed. FAO was seen as being able to play a major role in the European Region as well as globally, although some network activities already exist in certain fields, such as economics, extension education, publication database, etc., which are or are expected to be supported by the EU.
In addition to providing extra information on organic farming research in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Central and Eastern Europe and on ENOF activities, the presentations also showed a principal agreement with the recommendations made in E. Wynen's Report, particularly those of direct interest to FAO. The comments mainly further emphasised one or the other recommendation of the Report and different research priorities according to regional or country priorities. Among them, the value of comparative studies for economic research was mentioned.
For a while discussions focused on some of the major research areas in need of increased research attention, e.g. those with relative long-term investments like animal husbandry and fruit cultivation, but also vegetable growing, important from the consumption point of view. Marketing and quality assurance were mentioned as other important subject areas. While the need for increased cooperation in each area was apparent, two overall concerns crystallised: 1) the need for peer reviewed publications (in independent journals or in established scientific journals) and 2) the facilitation of the special needs of organic farming research, i.e. whole farm system experiments and above all, an holistic, interdisciplinary experimental design requiring in-depth horizontal collaboration and special methods.
It was also mentioned that researchers in many specific subject areas were already connected to a certain degree and therefore these specific subject areas may not be the area of largest need. There is much talk about holistic approaches in organic farming, but is it already an holistic approach if soil scientists are talking with economists? With research now also starting in government and university research stations as compared to exclusively in private institutions only a few years ago, the discussions on defining an holistic approach are of increasing importance. However, they are of a methodological nature. A wide range of researchers are interested in specifying the special qualifications for research in organic farming.
Discussions briefly focused on the non-technical areas of social, economic and ethic concerns in an holistic approach. None could be left out, but it was agreed that none of them should be the focus of a working group agenda at this point in time. In this context, ERNAC members reminded participants to consider the research nature of the cooperative network system.
Discussions continued on the need for on-farm research and special extension and training needs. In an holistic approach, which "generally goes a little beyond the classical Gallilean approach", it is sometimes difficult to also incorporate the classical elements of repeatability, representability and comparability. Since the holistic and interdisciplinary approach and particularly the former, include a larger human element of interpretation of research results, i.e. different perceptions from different scientists, a uniform, agreed methodology takes on a more important role.
It was mentioned that the question of methodology, i.e. standardisation of results and reporting, in an holistic and interdisciplinary approach, was to have been discussed by the ENOF network during their last workshop. In the end, precedence was given by ENOF to market issues and matters of higher concern for general agriculture and food policy. Scandinavian researchers in their newsletter had also expressed increasing interest in discussing the methodology issues.
It was then agreed that methodology and standardisation of research networks are a pan-European problem even if the research fields of highest interest may differ between north and south and east and west.
The suggestion to form the first initiative on "Research Methodologies in Organic Farming" with the purpose of identifying, defining and standardising research methodologies for an holistic, interdisciplinary approach to organic farming, was unanimously accepted and supported.
After agreement on the topic and need for future collaboration, the agenda and contributions from those present were discussed, i.e. procedures, timetables and responsibilities were clarified and established.
The following agenda was decided upon with the agreement of all the ERNAC members and SREN coordinators.
It was agreed that:
A new working group will be formed as part of SREN on the above-mentioned topic.
A first workshop of this working group will be held in the first half of 1998.
During this workshop a more detailed programme will be decided upon and a working group coordinator will be elected.
During this workshop the formation of a network or the continuation as a working group will be discussed.
The ECA be informed (preferably in October 1997) of this decision and of the perspective that this initiative might develop into a new network.
The ECA be informed that financial commitments from Member Governments are necessary.
All experts present, participate in the preparation of the workshop by contacting potential participants, suggesting to REU and the focal point people who may be interested and by working out a more detailed programme for the first meeting.
R. Krell would write the minutes of this Meeting and circulate them for comments.
A letter be drafted by REU with comments from the coordinator/focal point to inform everyone of this activity and its purpose, expecting a response and comments.
R. Krell asked for a volunteer to act as coordinator/focal point for the time being to receive the responses and draw up a summary and prepare a request to FAO/REU for the establishment of this new working group, describing its purpose, interest in the scientific community and first programme suggestions. R. Zanoli volunteered after the exact responsibilities had been clarified, namely:
commenting on a draft information letter;
receiving answers and preparing a "database"/address list; and
serving as a kind of "mailbox", correspondence point/focal point external to FAO/REU pulling the strings together.
The Secretariat (REU) will prepare responses to the information letter where necessary.
It was recommended by all participants that FAO/REU fully support this initiative in view of the great need and benefit that this collaboration will bring to all organic farming research and consequently to more sustainable agricultural practices in Europe and worldwide.
It was then requested that since it is intended to publish E. Wynen’s Report, the Expert Contributions, Comments to the base report, and these Minutes as a REU Technical Series and as a WWW page and in view of the fact that the Report should be finished in time to present it at the European Commission on Agriculture (ECA) Meeting to be held in October 1997, that all comments and contributions be sent to REU by 15 July 1997. Comments should be very short, one or two pages, just listing the major points and not be written in scientific publication format. They may also include, now that the topic has been decided, suggestions on specific activities such as sub-topics, newsletters, workshops, seminars, internet, etc.
The Chairman then thanked everyone for their efforts of putting their minds together and being present at the Meeting. He expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the discussion and his pleasure that such a clear topic and research focus was found which does not exclude any special field of interest from the outset but is not too broad to include all technical specialities. He felt that it is a very workable proposition, through which a great contribution can be made to the progress of organic farming research in Europe and globally, in which all other existing initiatives can collaborate and which can be of great benefit to FAO in its efforts to increase sustainability of agriculture worldwide.
He was also pleased that the SREN coordinators, who initiated the opening of the network to organic farming, and the ERNAC members, who advised on the best approach and procedures, were present at this important meeting.
Finally, he expressed his optimism that with the volunteer spirit and goodwill of this group, which have also been the main driving force behind all organic farming developments in the past, this working group and a possible future network will be off to a very strong and positive start.
