Organic Farming

[Dr Stephan Helfer]

Dear List

It is encouraging to see that APS is taking an active interest in organic 
food production. The press release posted by Brian Edmonds reflects a very 
positive initiative in the New World. To balance this press release 
slightly from a global perspective it may be interesting to see what other 
similar initiatives exist in Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa. The EU, 
for instance, has community wide Organic Production regulations since 1991 
(see for instance 
http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/organic/introduction/reg2092consol.pdf), 
and I understand that Australia and New Zealand have similar regulations. 
Whilst far less regulated, many African and Asian growers also produce 
organically, and the trend appears to be growing. Please remember also 
that a large proportion of crops in developing economies are produced by 
consumers themselves, with varying degrees of pesticide application. 
Unfortunately, most of the relevant data on agronomy and pathology of this 
production is unknown to the Plant Pathology community. 
I would be interested in hearing the views of other pathologists elsewhere 
(i.e. non-EU and non-US) on organic production.

Best wishes

Dr Stephan Helfer, SSO 
Mycologist

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Inverleith Row, EDINBURGH EH3 5LR,
Scotland UK 

http://www.rbge.org.uk 

phone: +44 (0)131 248 2865 (direct digital line) 
fax:   +44 (0)131 248 2901