Sustainable Agriculture is not a Luxury but a Necessity

“Sustainable agriculture is not a luxury but a necessity” says European Commissioner Dacian Ciolos.

Speaking at last week’s G20 summit in Brazil, Dacian Ciolos focused on the need to implement sustainable farming practises globally. Mr Ciolos’ explained why he sees sustainable agriculture as the way forward in the fight against hunger:

“With a steady increase of food demand, with already nearly one billion people undernourished, farmers have a difficult mission. The natural resources are getting scarce; farming can make the difference: positive or negative… As policy makers, we have the responsibility to offer farmers solutions and support for sustainable agriculture.”

For fuller transcript of the speech go to www.farming.co.uk.

Where and how does organic farming fit into this perspective? Generally speaking, true organic farming is part of sustainable agriculture. Both organic and sustainable farming methods share a similar goal: to protect and maintain the earth’s resources whilst producing healthy and nutritious crops using natural (not synthetic) means. However differences do exist. For further information on these differences check out www.sustainabletable.org.

What excites me about this speech is simply that sustainability is finally being recognised as the best option in the ongoing challenge to provide for the global population. For a long, long time sustainable agriculture and organic farming were perceived by many as a ‘nice to have’, not a ‘must have’. Could it finally be that governments and political agencies are realising that putting vast profits before anything else is damaging to our world? Organic living and sustainability give solutions that enhance our world, not hinder it.

For a brief overview of sustainability see my earlier post What is sustainability?

In the News

Commissioner Calls for Sustainable Agriculture Commitment ThePoultrySite.com

Commissioner Calls for Sustainable Agriculture Commitment. GLOBAL Sustainable agriculture is not a luxury but a necessity the European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolo told the G20 meeting in Rio last week.

Filed under: Organic Farming

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