{"id":99413,"date":"2025-01-31T08:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T07:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bioecoactual.com\/?p=99413"},"modified":"2025-01-31T09:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T08:16:18","slug":"game-changing-policies-are-needed-to-make-it-a-high-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bioecoactual.com\/en\/2025\/01\/31\/game-changing-policies-are-needed-to-make-it-a-high-five\/","title":{"rendered":"Game-changing policies are needed to make it a ‘high five’"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the five-year countdown to the 25%-organic-by-2030 target begins, will 2025 bring the ‘game-changing’ policies leading organic advocates are calling for?<\/strong> 2025 is a year of unavoidable symbolism for Europe\u2019s organic food and farming industry, marking the beginning of a five-year countdown to the EU\u2019s 25%-organic-by-2030 target. To date, progress towards meeting the 25% target has been variable, with member states moving at very different speeds.<\/p>\n

\"Game-changing<\/p>\n

In November 2024, the European Environment Agency warned of the “high certainty that the (25%) objective will not be met by 2030”. Two months earlier, the European Court of Auditors identified “persistent gaps and inconsistencies” in policy support. Meanwhile, analysis by the Th\u00fcnen Institute suggests that organic\u2019s share of total EU farmland in 2030 is likely to stand at around 15%, significantly short of the 25% target figure.<\/p>\n

But instead of plunging the organic sector into collective gloom, these warnings have galvanised the industry. Leading actors have mobilised to demonstrate how examples of best practice, policy support and market stimulus from organic front-runners \u2013 such as Denmark and Germany \u2013 can \u201cbe taken down from the shelf to drive rapid transition today\u201d, as the prominent Danish commentator, Paul Holmbeck<\/strong>, has put it.<\/p>\n

Bring on the game-changers<\/h2>\n

Holmbeck says that \u201cthe best policies come from when policy makers work in close dialogue and collaboration with the organic sector\u201d. He cites Germany, committed to achieving 30% organic agriculture under its Organic Strategy 2030, as a prime example. Holmbeck argues that hitting the 25% target will require “game-changer” policies, such as lower VAT on organic food<\/strong>. But he also points out the importance of active sectoral engagement with ministries and policy makers. “In the countries I have been working with I often find that ministry officials genuinely want to upscale organic, so we \u2013 the organic industry \u2013 need to be there providing technical and policy support.<\/p>\n

Paul Holmbeck: “Hitting the 25% target will require “game-changer” policies, such as lower VAT on organic food”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Motor for change<\/h3>\n

Micha\u00ebl Wilde<\/strong>, founder of The Organic Embassy, is clear that the Farm to Fork strategy\u2013and its 25% organic target\u2013remains the principal “motor for change”. He was in London in late 2024 to explain how a new national action plan is reinvigorating the Dutch organic industry. With the bold objective of growing organic agriculture from the current 5% of cultivated farmland to 15% by 2030, the plan \u2013 backed by \u20ac80 million of government funding \u2013 is now driving growth across the whole sector. He commented: \u201cFarm to Fork is the reason why we have an action plan, it\u2019s the reason why supermarkets are moving forward, it\u2019s the reason why large companies are saying that 20 to 25% of the food we serve to our employees must in future be organic.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to defend organic anymore<\/h4>\n

“What\u2019s so important about this is that we don\u2019t have to defend organic in the Netherlands anymore. This is the Dutch government saying that organic is a key part of the solution for sustainable agriculture transition. This makes it much easier for us to move forward together with companies, NGOs and municipalities. We can now say to them: Don\u2019t choose organic because the Dutch Government wants you to use organic \u2013 choose organic because it enables you to fix the challenges you have.”<\/p>\n

\"L\u2019Euro
EU organic logo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unprecedented consensus<\/h4>\n

In September 2024, the European Commission published the final report of the Strategic Dialogue<\/strong>, a major-cross sector review of EU food and farming that aimed to \u201cshift the debate away from the current polarisation\u201d. Ordinarily, this might not be the sort of thing to get the blood pumping. But the report\u2019s standout conclusion that organic “is the only regulated sustainable production system that already delivers environmental and climate protection” provided an energising end-of-year boost for the sector.<\/p>\n

IFOAM Organics Europe president, Jan Plagge<\/strong>, captured the significance of this development at a hearing of the European Parliament Committee for Agriculture when he commented on the \u201cunprecedented consensus\u201d behind the declaration.<\/p>\n

‘Don\u2019t conflate regenerative with organic’<\/h4>\n

While it is likely that a toolbox of approaches \u2013 organic, agroecological and regenerative \u2013 will be needed to achieve the sustainable agriculture transition, there is growing concern that regenerative agriculture (or \u2018regen ag\u2019) is becoming a significant vehicle for greenwashing<\/strong>. But we are now starting to see European regulators clamping down on this damaging trend. In November, the UK\u2019s Advertising Standards Authority issued new advice aimed at “cultivating compliance” in the regenerative agriculture sector. And the watchdog has warned companies specifically “not to conflate regenerative with organic”.<\/p>\n

Analysis by the Th\u00fcnen Institute suggests that organic\u2019s share of total EU farmland in 2030 is likely to stand at around 15%, significantly short of the 25% target figure<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Urgent climate priorities<\/h4>\n

The devastating effects of global heating seen across Europe in 2024 will bring added urgency to the climate impacts of agriculture in 2025 and could finally produce a decisive shift in governmental recognition of the huge mitigation potential of organic and agroecological farming systems.<\/p>\n

Despite the framing of the 2024 farmers\u2019 protests as \u2018anti-green\u2019 by parts of the media, their actions have served to highlight deeper problems that exist in farming \u2013 low farm gate prices, inflated land prices, small farm decline and, increasingly, crop failures due to the direct effects of global heating.<\/p>\n

Away from the headlines, the reality is that many farmers want to be responsible stewards of the land. As Micha\u00ebl Wilde<\/strong> said in London: “Most farmers I speak to, particularly the younger ones, want to farm sustainably and are often open to organic \u2013 but they want to be supported and paid properly for helping with the sustainable farming transformation.” We must hope that in 2025 that their message is heard, so that the momentum for substantive change becomes irresistible.<\/p>\n

Author:\u00a0<\/strong>Jim Manson, Journalist<\/p>\n

Article Originally Published in Bio Eco Actual International Yearbok 2024 – Trends 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/strong><\/a> to Bio Eco Actual Newsletter and be up to date with the latest news from the Organic Sector<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bio Eco Actual<\/em><\/strong>, International Organic Newspaper
\n<\/em>Read the Bio Eco Actual International Yearbok 2023 – Trends 2024<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n