It's Official: Organic farming provides the answers to feeding Africa and the world.

[Guest guest]

It's Official: Organic farming provides answers to feeding Africa

A scientific study by the United Nations

 

HELP PROTECT THE PLANET AND YOUR HEALTH - BUY ORGANIC PRODUCTS

SAY NO TO GMO's (GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS) AND CHEMICAL FARMING

 

More things that you can do as a consumer:

InfoNature-International/message/252

 

Watch an excellent documentary about food quality and the environment.

" The future of food " :

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3764995188693165078 & hl=en

 

 

 

 

Organic farming provides answers to feeding Africa:

 

BFA Media Release, 14 January 2009

 

The full study can be seen here:

http://www.unep.ch/etb/publications/insideCBTF_OA_2008.pdf

 

A major study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) concludes

organic farming offers Africa the best chance of breaking the long inherent

cycle of poverty and malnutrition. (1)

 

Research conducted by UNEP suggests that organic, small-scale farming can

deliver the increased yields which were thought to be the preserve of industrial

high-tech farming, in addition to reversing environmental and social damages,

leading to greater food security. The head of the UN's Environment Programme,

Achim Steiner, says the report " indicates that the potential contribution of

organic farming to feeding the world may be far higher than many had

supposed. " (1)

 

Dr. Kristen Lyons is a senior lecturer at the School of Biomolecular and

Physical Sciences at Griffith University (QLD) and the director of Mukwano

Australia, a non-for-profit group supporting the development of health care

services in African organic farming communities.

 

" Organic agriculture offers an alternative - and sustainable - future for

African farmers, " says Dr. Lyons.

She says the report provides a clear direction for reducing the current crisis

in agriculture and food systems in developing countries - organic, all the way.

" It demystifies the assumption that genetic engineering and other high-tech

approaches to farming are required to feed the world.

 

" In contrast, it is organic farming systems that have demonstrated the greatest

potential to feed the world's one billion starving people, and to ensure the

long term sustainability of global food production, " she says. The UNEP report

proposes that African communities need to look to alternative methods of farming

as genetic engineering is prohibitively expensive and therefore out of reach for

most African farmers. (1)

 

Organic farming in Africa has lead to benefits to the natural environment, with

the UNEP report showing a 93 per cent of case studies reporting benefits to soil

fertility, water supply, flood control and biodiversity. (1) Also, when

sustainable agricultural practices, which covered a variety of systems and

crops, were adopted, average crop yields increased by 79 per cent. (1)

 

Overall, the report found an increase in organic farming in Africa could lead to

savings on production costs (due to no expenditure on synthetic inputs), promote

economic viability and encourage food self-reliance. (1)

 

ENDS

 

 

--

Data: (1) United Nations Conference on Trade and Development United Nations

Environment Programme,

Report: UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity-building Task Force on Trade, Environment and

Development, Organic agriculture and food security in Africa, Unite Nations, New

York and Geneva, 2008 Link from:

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=548 & ArticleID=\

5957 & l=en

 

Media Contact: Dr. Kristen Lyons Ph: (07) 3735-7590 - BFA Media Department Ph:

(07) 3350 5716 ext. 232