Too much confusion has been created by not clearly defining, in operational terms, the concepts of "sustainable" agriculture. The lack of workable indicators is perceived as a major gap, yet sustainability indicators have been developed in physical (organic) and social-economical (fair trade) terms. For over 20 years IFOAM has expertise in organic standard setting (e.g. for production, processing, cotton/fibres) and is now registered by ISO as an international standard setting body. Organic farming, with its ecological standards and quality guarantee system through certification and accreditation, is the most precisely defined and controlled form of agriculture. It's logical, therefore, to conclude "organic agriculture is sustainability put into practise".

To give the environmental and social components of the MAFCL framework a real chance, it will be necessary to increase the efforts in introducing environmental and social accounting (based on internalisation of costs). Appropriate incentive programmes for conversion to organic agriculture have to be increased- always based on organic production standards. Given the voluntary character of organic agriculture, it´s important to stress that ultimate responsibility for setting our ecological and social standards must stay within the private sector. The government's role should concentrate on enforcement mechanisms of these standards. Expanded free trade without organic standards will only accelerate environmental and social "dumping", the mining of soils and the further destruction of whole ecosystems and rural communities.

On 29 January 1999 the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG) adopted a report, which concluded among others "that many aspects of organic farming were important elements of a system approach to sustainable food production" and recognised "the environmental and potential health benefits of organic agriculture and its contribution of innovative production technologies to other agriculture systems and to the overall goals of sustainability". The fact that COAG supported the proposal "to give the practise associated with organic agriculture a place within sustainable agriculture programmes" and that it endorsed "the development of an organisation-wide and cross -sectoral programme in organic agriculture" provides a good platform for the debates and documents of the upcoming CSD review on agriculture.

The organic movement as represented by IFOAM expects FAO and the upcoming CSD session on agriculture next year:

• To examine the solution potential of organic agriculture more closely.
• To work towards a better understanding of how organic agriculture meets the framework of MFCAL.
• To strengthen the links and cooperation between goverments and NGO´s from the organic sector on national and international level.
• To ensure that the acknowledgement for organic farming made by FAO (COAG and the Council) will be taken to the CSD.