ORGANIC FARMING IS GREEN PEACE WITH NATURE

OXFORD 24th September 1997

Greenpeace head congratulates IFOAM, calls for co-operation against chemical and biological pollution

Presenting Greenpeace's cordial congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movemements (IFOAM) Dr. Thilo Bode, executive Director of Greenpeace International, called organic farming one of the world's most sophisticated and serious visions of sustainability.

"Everybody talks about the fact that food production has to dramatically reduce energy consumption, toxic output and destructive methods that ruin soil and water resources and threaten the worlds biodiversity," Bode told representatives of the Organic Movement at their Conference in Oxford today, "But you just do it. And that is the style we like!"

By practically proving that green peace with nature was actually possible, the organic movement was the most important beachhead to sustainable agriculture of the 21st century. Referring to a joint petition on a class of genetically modified plants (containing genes of Bacillus Thuringiensis), which Greenpeace and IFOAM filed against the US Environmental Protection Agency last week, Bode warned the delegates: "Genetic engineering will not solve the massive problems the chemical industry has created, but rather add a new, fundamental environmental threat: from chemical to biological pollution."

Bode urged IFOAM to firmly stick to its present standards, which generally prohibit the use of genetically modified organisms. Bode congratulated IFOAM on the exponential growth of organic farming over the past few years not only in industrialised countries but also in the South, as well as their expansion to new sectors such as textiles, wood and fisheries.

"Your success will not be left unchallenged, because every hectare that is converted to organic methods is a loss to the new powerful agro-chemical transnational companies, who now call themselves Life Science Industry," Bode warned, and suggested that co-operation between environmental groups and the organic community had to intensify and expand in the future.

As the most important restriction to further growth of the organic sector and important field of co-operation Bode identified the present global terms of trade and a price system that did not properly reflect the costs of environmental destruction: "We need realistic prices for energy and global warming contribution, for toxic pollution and for the devaluating destruction of soil, water-resources and biodiversity."

While the industrial vision on future agriculture continued, causing destructive overproduction at the expense of the environment but also at the expense of rural employment and livelihoods, organic farming offered hope for social sustainability: "Organic farming is probably one of the most promising global job creators", he said.

In a world where still 800 millions are hungry while more food is produced and wasted than they can eat, the measure of efficiency is not how to further increase productivity at all costs, but how to provide access to food there is. The question is not "How can we feed the world," but "How can the people of the world feed themselves."

"Environmentalists have to make it clear," Bode concluded, "that sustainable agriculture is not just an interesting alternative or niche market but an ecological imperative."

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For further information contact

Benedikt Haerlin,
Greenpeace International
Genetic Engineering coordinator
+49 40 30618-410,
fax-140

James Gillies
Press Officer GPI
Tel. 31 20 524 9548

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