AGRICULTURE-ARGENTINA: Organic Farming, a Ray of Hope Amid Crisis

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 7 2001 (IPS) - Organic agricultural production in Argentina has brought a ray of hope for farmers in a country where conventional producers have been hit hard by a nearly four-year recession, a drying up of credit, floods and slumping commodity prices.

In the past few years, Argentina has become one of the world’s leaders in terms of acreage dedicated to organic farming.

One sign of the new sector’s draw on producers was seen at a meeting of organic farmers in San Marcos Sierras, in the central province of Cordoba. The participants experienced the gathering as a celebration, in contrast to the by now all too common images of farmers up to their necks in debt – and floodwaters – some of whom have even been pushed to suicide by their troubles.

“We were expecting 120 people, and 500 showed up,” Rodolfo Tarraubella, president of the Argentine Movement for Organic Production (MAPO), told IPS.

Tarraubella said the crowd overran the meeting’s organisational capacity, adding that “we had to house many of them in nearby towns, the homes of local families, and even camps.”

The First National Meeting on Organic Production, held in late November in San Marcos Sierras, around 800 kms from Buenos Aires, “was a joy, because we felt like a light amid the darkness.”

Tarraubella’s optimism is well-founded, to judge by the statistics. Organic farming techniques, which were used on just 5,000 hectares in this Southern Cone country in 1992, have extended to nearly three million hectares, thanks mainly to the boom in organic farming that began in 1998, when the country fell into a profound economic recession.

As a result of the crisis, thousands of farmers using traditional techniques fell deep into debt. Many of them are now facing the imminent foreclosure and auction of their land, which large agribusiness interests are keen to buy up in their quest to keep costs down by producing on a large scale.

But the gathering in San Marcos Sierras was a haven in the storm. Farmers came together to hear presentations of papers, participate in workshops and enjoy themselves at an arts festival.

“It is very encouraging to see that sustainable, ecological production which provides work for small farmers is possible,” said Tarraubella.

Organic farming is based on the principles of sustainable production that bans the use of chemical pesticides and respects the natural rhythms and processes involved in raising both crops and livestock, in order to produce healthier food products.

In Argentina, 90 percent of organic products are raised by small farms that employ no more than four workers.

“Around 70 percent of organic farms are family businesses,” said the head of MAPO, which groups 1,500 farmers, scientists, organic certifiers and environmentalists.

The sector basically produces fresh fruit and grains, and to a lesser extent beef, wool, tea, “yerba mate” (a traditional herbal infusion consumed in the Rio de la Plata region), olives, tobacco and sugar cane.

Organic sugar cane growers in the central province of Tucuman sell their entire yield to the United States at a price 35 percent above that of conventional sugar.

Consumption of organic products is steadily growing in industrialised countries, and although the biggest producers are in the United States, the European Union and Japan, their production falls short of meeting the rising demand.

The prospects for growth are huge. The latest report on organic farming by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the market for organic fruits and vegetables offers “great potential” for countries to increase export revenues.

The FAO study, released in October in Trinidad and Tobago, says that organic production is of immense importance to developing countries, because it involves small farmers and diversified agriculture.

As an illustration of the potential for growth, FAO cites the expansion of the sector in Argentina, which exports nearly 90 percent of what it produces.

However, the costs are still high for internal consumption, because it takes three years to adapt productive systems to meet the strict requirements involved in earning the “certified organic” label.

“Organic production is the only agricultural-food industry sector that grew steadily, by 25 percent a year worldwide, over the past decade,” said Tarraubella.

He pointed out, however, that organic products still only represented one percent of global trade in foodstuffs.

In Argentina, exports of organic products grew 30 percent a year, and will continue to grow, because new farming zones are in the process of obtaining certification, said Tarraubella.

Argentina has thus become the world’s second-biggest organic farming country in terms of the number of hectares dedicated to the activity, in which it is surpassed only by Australia, where seven million hectares are involved in organic farming.

Argentina’s total grew to nearly three million hectares mainly due to the incorporation of sheep farms in the southern region of Patagonia. Organic wool is in high demand in Europe for manufacturing clothing for newborn infants.

Organic livestock farming not only involves the search for healthy, natural products, but also reflects the growing movement demanding humane treatment of livestock, said Tarraubella.

“To give you an idea, a chicken raised in the traditional manner is pumped up with growth hormones and shut up in a cage where it eats 24 hours a day. Organic chickens, on the other hand, must sleep eight hours a night, have outdoor access and eat healthy foods,” he said.

Responding to criticism that organic farming will never be more than just a small niche within the conventional agricultural sector, Tarraubella said organic farmers would not resign themselves to remaining a minority.

“We want the entire world to be organic and sustainable,” he said with enthusiasm.

He also downplayed objections to the high costs of organic production and arguments that organic farmers would never be able to supply the growing world population.

Although organic products currently cost 10 to 50 percent more to produce, as natural farming methods become more widespread, “we are confident that the costs will drop, which has in fact occurred in the past few years,” he pointed out.

For example, “organic soy initially cost 800 dollars a ton, compared to today’s cost of 400 dollars,” he added.

Tarraubella clarified that the drop had nothing to do with the slump in international commodity prices, because organic products have not been affected by that phenomenon, since demand continues to exceed supplies.

He also criticised those who claim that genetically modified crops provide higher yields at lower costs, and that organic farmers take advantage of the presence of such crops – Argentina, the United States, Canada and China account for the lion’s share of the world’s transgenic harvests – to keep their own fields free of pests.

On the contrary, said Tarraubella, “the insects all come to our fields to survive, but we fight them with biological weapons.”