Dreams of Organic Farming – Facts and Myths

Interesting paper published by Holger Kirchmann, Lars Bergström, Thomas Kätterer and Rune Andersson in 2016

Foreword
Our book is intended to bring to the wider public a basic understanding of organic farming, in Sweden and more generally. While our research naturally has a local focus, we find the effects this type of agriculture has on food supply and the environment apply to the wider world from Europe and beyond.

Organic farming receives significant public attention with an assurance that this form of agriculture is good for the environment and provides safe, wholesome foods. This, in turn, has led to organic forms of production receiving public financial support inSweden, as in other countries, mostly in Europe. In Sweden, national agri-environmental payments total(link to full publication)

Healthy animals: key to sustainable food production

ifah-europeBrussels, 01 December 2016

The animal health industry plays a significant role in ensuring a sustainable food production by contributing to all three pillars of sustainability.

• Society: Food safety and security through animal health and welfare

• Economy: Less animal mortality and production losses

• Environment: Reduced environmental impact through a better use of natural resources

Read more in our paper and the info-graph on the contribution of healthy animals to sustainable food production.

Improved crop modelling for supporting policy design on climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation — CropM in MACSUR

faccejpiFACCE MACSUR Policy Brief 2

The second MACSUR policy brief, produced by the CropM coordination team, has been published. It focuses on the improvements in crop modelling that now allow conducting a comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts, and identifying adaptation and mitigation options for Europe at multiple scales. The work also provides the background for further significant contributions to IPCC assessment reports. The policy brief is available from the MACSUR web site and is published as FACCE MACSUR Reports 9: H0.3-D2.

Wild flowering landscapes & bee-friendly farm machinery announced as winners of this year’s European Bee Award

BlühmischungLandscape scale initiative “B-lines” and the “Double Knife system” mowing technology stand out among the pool of 27 contestants from 17 European countries

Now in its third edition, the prestigious European Bee Award organised by ELO and CEMA, awards innovative projects in two different categories: ‘land manager practices’ helping to protect pollinators’ habitat in the farmed environment and ‘innovative & technological solutions’, aiming at reducing the impact of farming activities on pollinators’ populations. Read more …

The Farmers’ Toolbox: For efficient and sustainable practices

boitagriFARRE, March 2016:

The new Farmer’s toolbox is online: This toolbox aims at providing farmers with crop-specific levers that can respond to their plant protection issues (weeds, insects, diseases, nutrition). The toolbox provides technical sheets, but above all, video testimonials from farmers, and a forum section in order to develop and promote innovative practices towards the majority of farmers. The website is in French and available at www.boitagri.com

LEAF in 2015: Annual Review published

LEAF_LOGO_with_text-20162015 has been another very positive year for LEAF. New LEAF Demonstration Farms and Innovation Centres have been opened to add to the outstanding network that has been developed and improved over the years. At the Annual Conference in November, Professor Dame Anne Glover spoke eloquently about the urgent need to continue funding new science for the industry, and most importantly to encourage its adoption in practice. In 2015, also Open Farm Sunday broke all records with attendance and the whole agricultural industry owes a debt of gratitude to all the participating farmers and their numerous helpers for the way in which they portray the good messages about British food and farming. Read more …

A few twists and turns on the road to soil health

photo David Lobb 1Article by David Lobb, University of Manitoba,
published in the July–August 2015 volume of Crops & Soils magazine:
“The United Nations (UN) has declared 2015
as the International Year of Soils (IYS) in an effort to raise
awareness and promote the sustainability of our limited
soil resources (www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/
iys-2015). A major focus of this effort is soil health:”
Read more …
(photo: © David Lobb)

Land in hand in municipalities

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

November 2015

Step by step towards more floral diversity
A diverse supply of blossoms, evenly spread throughout the year to the greatest possible extent, is what every beekeeper is likely to desire for his bees. Getting closer to this objective can be achieved via the own municipality, by managing land in hand – that is available almost everywhere – in an ecologically meaningful manner.

Land in hand is defined as open space areas in agricultural landscapes and residential areas neither used by agriculture nor nature conservation. Read more …