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!

Can Organic Agriculture Feed The World?

My story has changed a bit in regards to organic agriculture as a global solution. I am sharing my ideas with people every day. I am thinking of it as the good news. My, now zen-buddhist-philosopher father was a preacher when I was young and I can remember him talking about giving people 'the good news' - maybe it is in the blood.

Anyway, sitting at the IFAOM Booth at the COP15 (H-017F) I have been approached by many people who want to hear about yields and argue about the merits of a high input conventional system for the necessary yield increase for a growing world population.

My response, thus far, has been to report the fact that the world is already producing more than enough food to feed everyone - the problem is giving access to that food to the people who need it. Another argument has been to point out that the yield potentials of high input systems is based on the additions of resource inefficient and biologically hazardous chemicals. The pesticides and herbicides remove the potential for the farmer to harvest nutritionally important non-crop food sources. This is a big problem in a world where 1 in 3 people is a farmer and most of these farmers are marginalized people on degraded land and a tradition of gathering food in nature as well as from cropping systems.

After a short chat with Australian Water Lilly farmer and IFOAM World Board member Andre Leu I have learned that the yield potential in organic systems in no lower than in conventional. Having a quick cruise around the web and a read of his 2005 work on the subject I can see that he has strong scientific support for his arguments.

Have a look:

Andre Leu 'Organic Can Feed the World'

Science Daily 'Organic Farming Can Feed The World'

Christos Vasilikiotis, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 'Can Organic Farming "Feed the World"?'

Catherine Badgley, University of Michigan 'Scientists Find Organic Agriculture Can Feed the World & More '

New IFOAM Publications at the COP15 in Copenhagen

The staff of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has been sleepless for the last few weeks finalizing two publications to promote organic agriculture as a mechanism that should be included in the talks here in Copenhagen.

New IFOAM Climate Change and Food Security Publications
In time for the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference IFOAM and IFOAM EU Group have published two new publications to raise awareness of the important role of organic agriculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change and securing food supply.
Organic Agriculture - Guide to Climate Change & Food Security
Contribution of Organic Agriculture to Climate Change Adaptation in Africa

I am here at the IFOAM booth blogging and pressing organic (H-017F or those who are here). Smiling behind my green both and mac laptop shell I am trying to catch the attention of the passing delegates and other country officials as they walk past on the way to the negotiations and plenary sessions. Singapore, Uganda and Japan have shown strong interest this morning asking for more information and taking copies of publications with them to the inside.

I have been inside from dawn to dusk each day andI have not had a chance to see what it is like outside the event other than a quick chat with greenpeace activists and the wind powered coffee man. Security is getting tougher and it seems that soon our delegation will be limited by the UNFCCC event staff, perhaps then I will hve a chance to dance and chant with the protesters and the un-invited. Tomorrow in the center of town I will go to see Vandana Shiva speak at the Klimaforum 'People's Global Climate Forum' and get a chance to see what it is like for everyone outside the event. Meanwhile I am well dressed, cheerful, warm and full - I hand out 'fresh off the press' publications like a suited newspaper boy and push organic.

Stay tuned for more on the progression of COP15.