Paldang Organic Farms

Some good news has just come from Korea – a success in the struggle for the preservation of the Paldang Organic Farmlands.

The Paldang region is the birthplace of modern Korean organic agriculture and is the source of drinking water for the residents in the metropolitan areas of Seoul. The Korean government under its ambitious Four Rivers' Restoration Project planned to convert the region into bike trails and public parks, claiming that organic agriculture has a negative impact on the water quality of the region.

The struggle of the Paldang organic farmers was joined by the organic, environmental, religious and other social groups in Korea and it became symbolic in the national struggle against the Four Rivers' Restoration Project. Dumulmeori, a beautiful scenic haven in the Paldang region remained the last region to be developed under the Restoration Project.

In October 2011, the IFOAM membership present at its 20^th General Assembly unanimously passed a declaration in support of the Paldang farmers. The Declaration "openly supports the determined efforts to maintain organic management of the land inthe Paldang region" and recognized that Paldang as the birthplace of Korean organic agriculture "has a symbolic value for the national and the international organic movements."

On 12^th August 2012, the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs and the Committee for the Preservation of the Paldang Organic Farmlands came to an agreement on the preservation of the organic farmlands to be managed as a community ecological park, taking as example CERES of Australia, a measure that was suggested  by the organic farmers since two years ago. 

 The success of the negotiations was possible due largely to the mediation of the Catholic Church whose members held daily mass in the Paldang region for more than two years.

A common consultation body is to set up with the participation of the local governments of the Paldang region (Yangpyeong County and Gyeonggi Province), and the members of the Committee for the Preservation of the Paldang Organic Farmland. The budget for conversion into a community ecological park would be borne by the government. The organic farmlands will be preserved and Paldang will be a model of sustainable development in watersheds.  

Based on the peaceful resolution of the crisis and the public consensus reached, Paldang farmers "promise to strive to promote and preserve organic agriculture in Korea."

The Four Rivers' Restoration Project has proven to be an environmental disaster with floods and environmental damage in all areas developed under the project. Wetlands have been destroyed and the natural habitats of many migrating birds have disappeared. Contamination of the rivers have worsened and  flooding have become more frequent.

Many politicians are asking for the dismantling of the dams built as part of the Restoration Project and most of the presidential candidates have taken this up as their campaign slogan.  

The courage of the four farmers who remained and fought to the last will always be remembered in solidarity.   

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유영훈Leader of the Paldang Farmers in 두물머리 is running for Green Party election!

My good friend Mr. Young-Hun Yu (유영훈), the leader of the Paldang Organic farmers and activists in Dulmulmoeri (두물머리), is running for the election for the launch of the Green Party in South Korea.  - Word on the street in Seoul is that people are strongly supporting him. He is a strong activist for Organic farmers and says he vows to spread sustainable organic agriculture in South Korea.  

Mr. Young-Hun Yu (유영훈) talking about fighting the Korean Government in Support of Organic farmers.

Mr. Young-Hun Yu (유영훈) protesting in Dulmulmoeri (두물머리) to save the Organic farmers of Paldang. 

Thanks are due to both the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Korean Federation of Sustainable Agriculture (KFSA) for supporting the Paldang farmers throughout the planning of the IFOAM GA and OWC. - This cost the KFSA its budget this year and for a while it was looking like it might cost IFOAM the Korean Government support.   

It looks like things are turning around in South Korea. - We can all look forward to visiting an Organic South Korea soon. 

Organic Agriculture and Sustainable Development

The debate continues about the sustainability of Organic agriculture as compared to conventional.

It seems that the best way to move forward is to spread the word and the science. It is critical that we spread the word that unsustainable yields of GM crops will not solve food shortage issues. Organic is a much more sustainable solution for agricultural production in developing countries. Organic often out performs conventional and it creates opportunities within the development context. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has a brief on food security and Organic agriculture which lays out the basic facts. The research clearly shows that Organic is a viable and sustainable solution. A study done in 2008 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-UNCTAD) Capacity-building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development found that Organic has great potential and actually contributes to food security in Africa. The Environment and Natural Resources Service Sustainable Development Department found that Organic is a viable solution for development as it contributes to to ecological health, international markets and local food security. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security in 2007 pointed out the many facets of the potential for Organic to contribute to food security around the world.

The following literature offers more support for Organic in a development context:

Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems

Organic agriculture and the global food supply

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IFOAM Organic World Congress History

Here at the KOC office we were saddened to see that the full history of the IFOAM OWC was not available anywhere online. Therefore we have done the footwork and here present the IFOAM Organic World Congress History:

 
It was Known as the IFOAM International Scientific Conference from it's conception in 1977 until 2000:

1st: Sissach, Switzerland (1977)
2nd: Montreal, Canada (1978)
3rd: Brussels, Belgium (1980)
4th: Boston, USA (1982)
5th: Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany (1984)
6th: Santa Cruz, USA (1986)
7th: Quagadougou, Burkina Faso (1989)
8th: Budapest, Hungary (1990)
9th: Sao Paulo, Brazil (1992)
10th: Christchurch, New Zealand (1994)
11th: Copenhagen, Denmark (1996)
12th: Mar del Plata, Argentina (1998)
13th: Basel, Switzerland (2000)

It then became known as the IFOAM Organic World Congress:

  
14th: Victoria, Canada (2002)
15th: Adelaide, south Australia (2005)
16th: Modena, Italy (2008)
17th: Palddang, Korea (2011)

18th Istanbul (2014)

19th New Delhi (2017) 

20th France (2021) 

21st Digital but also France (2022)

IFOAM is NGO Coordinator of 64th UN DPI/NGO Conference to Be Held in Bonn from 3 to 5 September 2011: Sustainable Societies – Responsive Citizens

IFOAM is NGO Coordinator of 64th UN DPI/NGO Conference to Be Held in Bonn from 3 to 5 September 2011: Sustainable Societies – Responsive Citizens

The 64th Annual United Nations Conference of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) will be held in Bonn from 3 to 5 September 2011. The German government, the City of Bonn, the NGO/DPI Executive Committee and UN Volunteers are organizing the conference.   The event is a strategic steppingstone for NGOs preparing for twenty-year review of the groundbreaking UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The outcomes of the DPI/NGO conference are expected to be integrated into future negotiations of the Rio+20 process taking place next year. 

IFOAM as a Laterally structured Organization

As a member of the international Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) I was recently asked to comment on proposed changes to the organizational structure. I was given a sheet with the old complicated hierarchical chart structure and the new proposed chart. The differences were clearly well thought out and significant but I was still not convinced. It seems to me that the organizational structures charts are used more for reporting and serve little role in the every-day running of an organization.

I proposed that IFOAM consider a team based lateral organizational structure. It puts everyone on the same employment level into teams that perform specific job functions, requires lower overhead, and little to no management. All the delays in decision-making and implementation due to chain of command would be eliminated. Responsibility would be shared, and decisions made among team members by a quorum. it seems everything would be better run, and more effectively implemented than through a hierarchy.

In my opinion the hierarchy model does not fit with IFOAM's mission or goals. The organization is supposed to be democratic and fair. Why not follow through with that right down tot he nitty gritty everyday practices. it seems only right.

Here is a part of a poem written by Walt Whitman in 1886 that captures my sentiment on this issue. it comes from the poem "Song of Myself" which is a perfect read to welcome the early summer with.


"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

I think I could turn and live with animals, they're so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.
They do not make me sick discussiong their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world."
— Walt Whitman (Song of Myself)

Organic in Seoul Korea

Just arrived in Seoul, Korea and now live at the Green Scent Farm, a peri-urban organic farm with vegetable production and farm exposure programs for children and consumers from Seoul.

On my first night on the farm I was treated to a large traditional Korean barbecue with the whole family. Complete with a few different species of native plants and some heavy Korean schnapps.

I am here working for the Korean Federation of Sustainable Agriculture Organizations (KFSA) one of the many organizers of the IFOAM Organic World Congress (IFOAM OWC).

The IFOAM OWC (titled: 'Organic is Life') will take place in Gyeonggi Paldang in early October. The organizers are several government institutes and non-profit organizations.

The event will also be the 3rd Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR) looking at the development of the Organic Sector in Korea and other Asian countries.

For now I am working on getting rid of my jet-lag and getting into the swing of life in Seoul.

For balance, here is a Poem from Wendell Berry's Farming: A Handbook

The Man Born to Farming

The Grower of Trees, the gardener,

the man born to farming,

whose hands reach into the ground and sprout to him the soil is a divine drug.

He enters into death yearly, and comes back rejoicing.

He has seen the light lie down in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.

His thought passes along the row ends like a mole.

What miraculous seed has he swallowed

That the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth

Like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water

Descending in the dark.

Biofach 2010 'Organic and Fair'

Hello from the Biofach 2010 in Nuremberg Germany. Here inside things are much quieter than in 2009. There are some 200 less exhibitors and several hundred less visitors. Hall three is closed entirely this year and there are actually places to sit at the various cafes around the 'Fair and Bio' section of the fair. This is a win and a lose for everyone. Maybe huge business like Wal-Mart and McDonalds will leave organic alone if the market falls a little bit, on the other hand small organic producers and communities are looking at tougher markets and less income for their labor.

This years Biofach is about walking around eating and looking for people to learn from about the livlihoods of the farmers and high biodiversity production systems. There are a number of coffee, cacao, brazil nut and cashew farmers here from Latin America and Africa who are eager to discuss and have the hands that produced the food products we are discussing.

This years theme for Biofach is 'Organic and Fair' and has managed to draw a huge crowd of people who are eager to network and discuss the issues regarding the processing marketing and sales of these food products but a dirth of people who would like to discuss the actual production. I am headed to a discussion on wild collection this afternoon and then to a climate change discussion and hope to learn more there.

Humanure; The potential for composted sewage in Organic Agricultural systems

This morning I am pondering the potential use of human manure in organic cropping systems. The loss of all the basic essential soil elements and organic carbon could be significantly reduced through the application of composted human sewage. In most of the world the industrial waste water is now separated from the residential. Could this heavy metal and chemical-free composted sewage be used on organic fields?

In Global Development of Organic Agriculture: Challenges and Prospects the authors hint at the potential for the use of composted human wastes claiming the tremendous benefits to the soil. This topic is also hinted at in the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) Growing Organic Web Pages. Reclaiming these lost of nutrients in the urban sewage treatment systems could easily be enough to renew the fertility of the world's agricultural soils.

Most people do not agree.  The Environmental Working Group (EWG) strongly recommends that sewage sludge NOT be allowed in organic systems claiming the content of dangerous chemicals, detergents etc. In Eco Living Solutions the authors are strongly against the use of human wastes in agricultural systems claiming high chemical and heavy metal content. In many places around the world, including Nova Scotia, farmers, activists and political parties are fighting against the use of sewage sludge on farmland.

The primary problem with this discussion is that much of the data is from 1988 or older. Urban sewage treatment systems have changed significantly in much of the world since then. Opening up this debate could help re-design the way sewage is treated and recycled. The benefits to farm systems, food production and the poisoned and over-nutrified aquatic eco-systems could be significant.
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Hanging around in Copenhagen

The COP15 organizers (UN, UNFCCC, City of Copenhagen, Denmark) have either done a terrible job organizing this event or they have deliberately messed this up, either way 45,000 registrations were given for a conference that holds only 15,000 people, therefore civil society is left out in the cold. In some cases civil society has even been roughly evicted from the Bella Center. Luckily the IFOAM staff is extremely resourceful and industrious and have been organized enough to find a new space for a side event at Action Aid here in Copenhagen.

Despite the exclusion from the COP15 the NGO world has been active. The side events I witnessed today at the Klimaforum and Action Aid were phenomenal. IFOAM hosted a 2 hour side event dealing specifically with soil carbon and organic systems. Gundula Azeez of the Soil Association Timothy Lasalle of the Rodale Institute, Urs Niggli of FiBL as well as people from IATP, La Via Campesina and others presented information about organic systems.

Great day!

The situaton inside the COP15

Not only are the Danish police both bumbling and heavy handed here in Copenhagen the UN organizers of this 'Conference of the Parties' COP15 event have really made a terrible mess. The IFOAM delegation numbers have been restricted so severely that most of our delegates cannot gain access and we probably cannot host the side event we scheduled for tomorrow. The Friends of the Earth have been restricted completely (The chair was escorted and banned) from entering the event and the venue entrance is now filled with a sit down demonstration of several hundred NGO members who have gone through security but are still not allowed to enter the venue.

The UN organizers informed us last week that that tomorrow 'civil society' will be cut down to 1,000 and by Friday down to 90. Now it seems they have changed the story and intend to cut our numbers down today and restrict access altogether by Friday. The general consensus is that civil society is being marginalized here. For UN organizers to register 45,000 people for an event that they planned to limit to 15,000 attendees is wrong and it is terribly costly to the organizations. People have come from all over the world at great expense. Researchers in organic agriculture from around the world have come to present at our side event and take part in our press conference only to stand outside in the snow for up to 8 hours and then be turned away. Everyone is very upset. Andre Leu even said yesterday that the organizers of this event are incompetent on Australian National television.

What is left of the NGOs inside the COP15 have planned an organized walk-out from the Bella Center today. With less than 1,000 inside the place is quite empty and now that the Plenary sessions will allow only 300 and may not even allow us to speak. The collective understanding is that it makes more sense for us to concentrate our energies on the growing movement outside of the venue.

COP15

Modkraft

Reclaim Power COP15

COP15

The early bird gets the worm here at the COP15. It appears that Urs Niggli and I are the only members of the IFOAM delegation to make it inside the COP15 today.

This morning was a necessary early start here at the COP15 in Copenhagen. Half asleep without breakfast or coffee I made my way from our IFOAM flat in the north of the city to the Bella Center to join the ranks of shivering NGO workers. The line outside stretches from one tram stop to another and the line for those not yet registered is even longer. The que outside is probably already beyond the capacity of the center which is a real bone of contention for us -why would UNFCCC register more people for the center than capacity? There are some 40,000 people registered with a capacity for 15,000 for this event. Standing together in line with the rest of the members of 'Civil Society' we discussed the implications of this poor organization on the part of security staff here in Denmark. The lines are neither marked nor is the purpose of each line known to the security staff. It is a mess.

The Party members are now pouring past the IFOAM Booth with entourages of support staff and security. No plenary sessions officially start until after 1700 but these guys are on the way in to pick up tickets and see Prince Charles, Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger speak to the issues.

That is all for now from the COP15

Mandatory Compost in San Francisco

'I left my heart in San Francisco. High on a hill, it calls to me.
The morning fog may chill the air - I don't care.
My love waits there in San Francisco
above the blue and windy sea!'
- Dean Martin

Though I have been away for a few years I still feel close to San Francisco. I left a lot of friends, my bike, my surfboard and my heart there. It is a city which represents the progresss toward the Ecotopia dream of my youth. San Francisco is a beacon of progressive policies and steps toward a sustainable relationship between humans and the environment.

Before I go beekeeping this morning I wanted to congratulate that great city on yet another step toward that ideal: This morning I read Gavin Newsom's June 23rd article on Greenbiz.com. He has signed in a tough new law that all businesses and individuals in the city must now compost their waste. All this in the interest of meeting the goal of zero waste by 2020.

'It will take time, but I believe mandatory composting will spread across the country -
improving the air we breathe and reducing our need for landfills.'
-Mayor Gavin Newsom

More Information about San Francisco Recycling Programs.

IFOAM Growing Organic Useful Composting Links page.

IFOAM Growing Organic Pages on Soil Fertility and Plant Cultivation.

Cory's Dr Green Blog Posts:
Small is Beautiful
Give Organic a Chance
Beekeeping
No Work Farming
Growing Organic

Visit Farmers for the Future

Biofach 2009

Well, I have just returned and recovered from the Biofach in Nuremberg. Biofach is the largest Organic fair in the world - held each year in Nuremberg it is literally the center of the Organic Market Sector and the meeting place for people from all over the Organic World.

IFOAM among others has a strong presence there and does a lot of it's networking for projects and functions for members in the comming year. FiBL was there and with IFOAM were publicizing the recently published 'World Statistics Book'

During the Biofach, although I was extremely busy I met people from all over the world farmers and sales people, cheese and wine makers, researchers and non-profit workers. Everyone involved in organics was there.

Health is Wealth

The ill health of our economies and our natural systems are battling for first on the global agenda. Governments are trying to decide whether to invest in climate change mitigation or economic stimulus. Car companies are getting billion dollar bail outs while others suffer the economic downturn without aid. Treating the problems of the natural environment and the problems of the economy seperately is a mistake, economy and ecology are the same, the shared etymological root is oikos. Ecological health and economic health are inextricably linked. Boosting the economy without considering the natural consequences is addressing the symptom and not the problem. These global health issues must be treated holistically utilizing sustainable practices.

We must find ways to localize and reduce our ecological impacts. Our health and the health of our environment depends on it. As in the Son’s Flesh Sutra where a couple has to eat their own child to survive crossing the desert, if we continue to destroy the environment in order to feed the economy we have no chance of really surviving.

The good news is that holistic medicine for ill economies and natural systems are known and are being utilized. It starts with small communities. The benefits of community action in terms of management of natural resources and food production are incredible. When a community starts an organic garden or a sustainable forestry project they have healthy work, they promote natural systems, ecological tourism, hunting and harvesting, they make money or save some money by producing food for the table and reducing health risks.

On the global scale there are many effective and responsible organizations helping to make a greener future. The Forest Stewardship Council promotes international economically and ecologically responsible forestry management. The We can Solve It Campaign, The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, 350.org and The Slow Food Movement are more examples of socially, ecologically and economically responsible movers and shakers on an international scale.

TTD: I have just finished writing to the newly redesigned US Presidential Office of Public Liaison about the potential of organic and local food for supporting economies and mitigating climate change. The office of Public Liason is accepting and using information and suggestions from everyone. Write them a note about how you feel the US should approach these issues in a more holistic way.

Cory's Dr Green Blog Posts:
Small is Beautiful
Give Organic a Chance
Beekeeping
No Work Farming
Growing Organic

IFOAM's Growing Organic Web Pages (www.ifoam.org/organic) Information and Resources for Developing Sustainable Agriculture

Growing Organic www.ifoam.org/growingorganic


I have been working for the past eight months on this exciting project for the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements Head Office in Bonn, Germany. This has been an incredibly educational and grounding experience. The work is now essentially complete and I am now working on promoting it. Please help me get the word out, have a look and see if the work applies to you and where you feel it might best be promoted.

The web pages I built are a source of information for developing organic sectors of all kinds, even growing organic food and composting in the backyard. They represent the cumulative knowledge and experience of IFOAM, the umbrella organization for Organic Agriculture, and are a community resource designed to represent and serve global Organic movements. I like to think of them as a kind of Organic Wikipedia.



These web pages provide comprehensive information for everyone from grassroots organizers engaged in advocacy to trainers and smallholders (Training Platform www.ifoam.org/training). They are also full of recommendations and options for the successful growth through networking, strategic relations, and partnerships.

Searching these pages you can learn more about the history of Organic Agriculture, lessons learned through case studies and research from all around the world, and specifics on how to produce and promote Organic Agriculture. Here you will also find information on the whole process of developing organic sectors, from policy making to market development (www.ifoam.org/markets).

These pages address common criticisms/ misconceptions, and offer arguments in favor of Organic Agriculture through the publications and works of IFOAM and Global Organic Movements.

I hope you like it.

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