MOAN - MEDITERRANEAN ORGANIC AGRICULTURE NETWORK MEETING IN SPAIN

News

The MOAN meeting will take place in Madrid, May 10th -14th, 2009 on the issue
"ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND LOCAL IDENTITIES - 
POTENTIAL AND CHALLENGES FOR POLICY AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT".
Claiming that organic agriculture has good potential to positively contribute to diversify and revitalize local economies, to strengthen local identities while reconnecting them to urban communities from a glocal perspective is not a difficult intellectual exercise any longer. The organic sector’s distinct features and history help in this task. Reference can made to:
i) the broad social basis of organic movement which has been supported, since early beginning, by different groupings of society and seems able to attract various urban and rural interests and build alliances with different constituencies;
ii) organic agriculture’s holistic approach to farming and to its role in society, recently strongly reaffirmed with renewed emphasis on principles and values;
iii) organic farmers’ pioneering experience with sustainability and multifunctionality concepts and practices in developed and developing countries (livelihoods diversification, food security, direct sales, onfarm processing, quality and regional food chains, educational farms, rural/ecological tourism, social agriculture).
However, evidence about conventionalisation trends and controversial or anecdotal findings about organic agriculture’s socio-economic impacts may represent a threat to the credibility of such discourses and of the sector’s ambition to be recognized as the model for future agriculture. Also, challenging, at times, is the scaling up of success stories and the identification of clear indications for policy and market development supporting the growth of organics as a tool to better experience, dynamically preserve, fairly develop and
effectively promote local identities through sustainable individual and collective entrepreneurship.
The conference will look at how the emergence/development of organic agriculture interacts with processes and tools of empowerment of local identities – e.g. geographical indications and tourist/food trails. The theme will be addressed from different angles focusing on institutional, technical, governance and market issues. The theme will be addressed from different angles focusing on institutional, technical, governance and market issues, starting from what has naturally emerged so far and what seems to be working well or not working at all. Given the mission and geographical scope of the MOAN the sharing of concrete experiences from EU and non-EU Med countries will be encouraged.