Organic Agriculture in Europe: EU Sets Goal of Growing Organic Farmland from 10% to 25% by 2030

Abstract

Historically, Europe has been the locus of key developments in the founding and growth of organic agriculture. A century ago, in 1924, the Austrian New Age philosopher Dr. Rudolf Steiner called for an agriculture differentiated from the prevailing direction of agriculture and one reliant on natural biological processes rather than synthetic chemicals. The European Union (EU) has set the goal to be of 25% organic by 2030. Organic agriculture presently accounts for 9.6% of EU agriculture (cf. the world figure is 1.6%). For the past two decades, the tally of EU organic agriculture hectares has grown at 6.7% pa to reach 15,639,063 ha (cf. the world total of 76,403,777 ha). At this historic rate of growth (of 6.7% pa), organics will account for 17.5% by 2030 (c. 28.2 m ha), which is well short of the goal. To reach 25% by 2030, the growth rate needs to be ramped up to 10.7% pa growth (and reach a total of 40.6 m ha). About half (n = 15) of the 31 countries committed to the 25% goal, comprising the EU, EEA, and EFTA, have more than 10% organic agriculture. That offers a good foundation on which to build to the goal. The other half (n = 16) each have less than 10% organic agriculture; they offer opportunities for substantial uptake of organics. The EU has a ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy (F2F) with an ‘Action Plan’ comprising three ‘Axes’ and 54 ‘Actions’ to achieve the 25% organic goal by 2030; however, milestones and waypoints are lacking. The EU goal is bold, but not as bold as the 100% organic goals of Sikkim, which has achieved its 100% goal, and Bhutan, which has not and is stalled at 1% organic.