The share of EU agricultural land under organic farming increased by more than 50% over the period 2012-2020, with an annual increase of 5.7%. In 2020, 9.1% of the EU’s agricultural area was farmed organically. On average, though with substantial variation across Member States, organic farms are bigger than conventional farms and run by younger farm managers.

In: Sustainable Food System, Vol. 1 Series of publications by Department of Organic Food Quality and Food Culture of the University of Kassel.

More farm and forestry land than ever is used to grow sustainable commodities, though the pace of expansion is slowing, the new International Trade Centre (ITC) publication finds. The growing popularity of certified goods helps ensure the production and trade of more agricultural commodities that promote environmental quality, social equity and economic prosperity.

Published on Organic Agriculture. Biodynamic agriculture (BD agriculture) was presented as an alternative form of agriculture by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner and is nowadays considered one of the forms of organic agriculture. The objective of the present manuscript is to critically review international scientific literature on biodynamic agriculture as published in highly ranked journals and to assess its performance.

The study investigated and compared welfare conditions and gastrointestinal (GI) parasites distribution among organic (ORG) and conventional (CONV) farms in central Italy. Five ORG and five CONV farms were assessed for animal welfare with an adapted version of the AssureWel protocol. Faecal samples collected from the rectum of the animals both in ORG (n = 150) and CONV (n = 150) were analysed using conventional copromiscroscopy.

Published in “Sustainability”. Organic monogastric agriculture is challenged because of a limited availability of regional and organic protein-rich ingredients to fulfill the amino acid requirements. The development of novel feed ingredients is therefore essential.