Ollie's annual christmas wish list to Santy

Dear Santy

How are you? It must be tough this year. For me, it's hard to know what to ask for. I mean, you have been very good to me in recent years, and I should by now be more self sufficient. How many more bail outs do I need?

Plus, I feel like I should just make whatever it is myself, such is the fashion for frugality these days: Grow it yourself, mend it yourself, where will it all end? Making jumpers out of old odd socks knitted together, to sell at the car boot sale?

Maybe I'm wrong to even be asking for stuff. So I'll try to be creative and modest, like dresses in the 1930s.

(image from green santa : check them out!)

First up has to be the implementation of the programme for government santy. I was very surprised to see all the organic and GM bits in there, especially with all the details about horticulture, voluntary GM free logos and the like.

So even just that, which includes a re-commitment to reaching 5% organic. That would be just dandy.

All kinds of options would open up, were we to reach 5% organic. Especially considering the fact that organic farms build soil quality, which helps prevent floods while also taking carbon from the air and putting it into the ground. That's just what we need now, so it is.

Maybe then, organic could start to take centre stage. Or, at least, not be left out in the cold completely.

Isn't it funny how the IFA complained about being left out of the big conference in Dublin David McWilliams organised? After complaining about being left out of the Irish Economic Forum, they left organic out of the conference they orgnaised.

This despite organic actually being a growth area in agri-food! You couldn't make it up Santy.

Maybe the organic guys should leave someone out of their next conference � biodynamic, or local, or the like.

I'm hoping you can also rig the vote on the new EU organic logo too. Is that too much? Otherwise, someone will probably set up a facebook campaign which will mean that the most partisan and least suitable logo will actually win.

Can you believe, Santy, its being decided by a public vote? They got students to come up with designs, and then made a shortlist available for voters. Do you remember that time the Wolfe Tones version of A Nation Once Again got voted the best song ever on a BBC pole? Either we're facing that malarkey Santy, or I'll get you to fix it for me.

I'd love to see some more organic farmers getting creative and finding creative routes to market. I know organic farmers who are selling tail and tongue to really trendy but affordable restaurants these days Santy � who'd have thought of it, eh?

I know the banks are being extra mean these days but necessity breeds ingenuity Santy, so I'm hoping more products like some of the great new ones we've seen come on board this year will emerge.

Now, that's a fair bit already, I know. Just here me out. Now that organic conversion has become available again, from 1st January, I'd like a handful of new organic farmers in each of the following areas: dairy, arable, horticulture. Just a handful now � I'm not greedy!

So in dairy, I'd like 4, in arable 5 and in horticulture about 5 big guys too. That's not too much more now is it? The conventional diary price is so poor santy, that there must be opportunities for them � especially with the new organic dairy farmer company, the Little Milk Company.

Who knows, maybe even Venison? Rudolph and the lads better watch out themselves! I'd say they are fairly organic, and would provide a mean meat for the hungry mob I have here to feed. Lean times here in Ireland, Mr Claus.

Things are tough santy, but I know you'll pull through. You always do!

Vandana Shiva Speaks at Climate Summit Protest

Protests rocked Copenhagen on Saturday, December 12 as anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 people (depending on who you talk to) marched to the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to demand a strong climate treaty to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Indian physicist, author, and activist Vandana Shiva spoke to the crowd before the march:

RADICAL RUPTURE OR RADICAL REALISATION: ORGANIC FARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE

With random and sudden ruptures, it becomes possible to imagine different realities.

Sudden war, sudden disaster, realising your girlfriend is pregnant, all of these things, from the personal to the seismic, can sharpen the focus and change the dynamic.

Ireland has just experienced sudden onset recession, and even more sudden onset flooding. So what was written in stone has been, literally and metaphorically, washed away.

Who knows what the next decade will bring? Even the next few years will be interesting in that Chinese proverbial sort of way: strikes, deflation, unemployment, but also perhaps the resourcefulness of a young, well educated population shining through.

(Image from NASA)

Global warming and the peaking of oil availability will be defining aspects of these coming years.

We don't know how related to global warming the recent flooding in Ireland has been.

But we do know that organic farming, in some very significant ways, fights both flooding and global warming.

The UK's Soil Association has recently released a report on the soil carbon building dimension to organic farming, and speculated on a world where organic farming was the norm.

This mega-imagining is radical rupture stuff, but maybe now is the time for that sort of thinking.

This new report's key point is that organic farming methods build up the amount of carbon in the soil, which in basic terms means that its not in the sky causing global warming.

Taking their cue from a review of the 39 available comparative studies of organic farming

soil carbon levels, they made some significant points:

�Soil carbon sequestration, according to the IPCC�s scientific advisors on land use, represents 89% of agriculture�s greenhouse gas mitigation potential.� (The IPCC are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

They describe this as a �blind spot�, as it is an otherwise under analysed area: most attention is focused on methane, nitrous oxide and anaerobic digestion.

In other words, locking carbon into the ground is farming's biggest trump card: the report in fact reveals that carbon sequestration may be far more significant that these other areas.

�Unlike the carbon released from fossil fuels, the soil carbon store has the potential to be recreated to a substantial degree�.

This means that farming, properly practiced, can be the planet's knight in shining Armour.

�More widespread adoption of organic farming practices and grass based and mixed farming systems � can make a significant and immediate contribution to greenhouse gas mitigation.�

Humid Ireland is well placed to further develop its grass based and mixed farming systems, as well as organic.

A key comparative finding is the following; �Organic farming practices produce 28% higher soil carbon levels than non-organic farming in Northern Europe, and 20% for all countries studied�

What these levels mean is that, if adopted on a significant scale globally, �organic farming could potentially sequester 1.5 billion t(onnes) C(arbon) per year, which would offset about 11% of all anthropogenic global GHG emissions for at least the next 20 years.�

Thinking globally on this level might seem far fetched and outlandish. But then, so do last year's property prices. And so would the current flood levels, from the vantage point of 12 months ago.

Imagine if farming offset 11% of all human-caused GHG (Green House Gas) emissions?

Crucially, bringing many relevant aspects of the global warming and farming debates together for a country like Ireland, the report suggests the following:

�Grass-fed livestock has a critical role to play in minimising carbon emissions from farming and this must be set against the methane emissions from cattle and sheep�.

�This is because grasslands for grazing livestock, whether permanent pasture or temporary grass on mixed farms...represent vitally important soil carbon stores.�

Ireland has a head start over the more intensive, compound feed driven meat and dairy sectors of other countries.

It may turn out that grass fed animals on mixed farms, just slightly adapted to encompass organic farming principles, will be a significant part of dealing with global warming.

Is that a radical rupture or a radical realisation?

ORGANIC FARMING CAN HELP PREVENT FLOODING

Organic farming can provide a natural barrier against flooding.

That's according to Professor Ewald Schnug and Dr Gerold Rahmann, of the Institute of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science and the Institute of Organic Farming at the Federal Agricultural Research Centre in Germany.

They point out that �organically managed soils show approximately seven times more earthworms and twice as high infiltration rates as soils on conventional farms. Employing crop rotations with forage crops (for example clover or grass) and catch crops, as well as an optimal supply of organic materials results in a higher humus content in organically managed soils.�

(picture: flooding around ennis)

These results on soil structure and infiltration rates are visible within three years, they claim.

Indeed the researchers go so far as to suggest �that substantial support of organic farms is justified to pay for a service provided by the farms to the community�, and that �support for organic farming could be an efficient measure to counteract anthropogenic soil consumption which contributes to flooding dangers�.

In the absence of synthetic fertilizers to make the plants on the surface grow faster and stronger, organic farming relies on soil building techniques such as clover stitching and composting. This, it turns out, makes the soil more able to deal with extreme weather conditions. Basically, the soil retains its elasticity.

On the other hand, with modern intensive agricultural practices, soils get compacted and loose their ability to allow water to flow, or infiltrate down deeper into the ground.

Soils are sealed or compacted when water's infiltration capacity is reduced. The main causes of this are �decreasing organic matter contents, decreasing biological activity and increasing compaction caused by high mechanic stress of soil structures� according to Schnug and Rahmann.

�Conversely, high infiltration rates of healthy soils can reduce the intensity of flood incidents�.

While conservation tillage (i.e. no plough techniques) in conventional farming helps, according to the researchers, �on organic farms a much larger number of positive factors for the development of "bio-pores" in the soil exist. Such bio-pores are the key to improved infiltration and are mainly created by earthworms.�

There is an increasing body of research into organic farming and soil structure. Hole et al 2005 conducted a literature review of 76 studies on the effect of organic farming on individual taxon, from 1981 to 2004.

In all cases organic scored better than conventional, including for all the underground taxon, such as earthworms, beetles, other arthropods and soil microbes. Plant life was also effectively positively by organic farming in 13 of the cases, with mixed results or no difference in just 2 cases. A variety of plants increases the range of depths of rooting for plants, which again aids soil structure.

Other research again (e.g. Kasperczyk and Knickel 2005) found that organic farming increases both infiltration and soil (as opposed to surface) water retention capacity.

Two long running field trials, the DOK trials in Switzerland and the Rhodale trails in the US, found similar results, in terms of organic faming preventing soil erosion and soil compaction, and coping with extreme weather conditions.

According to a 2003 peer reviewed publication on the Rhodale research, �Soils in the organic plots captured more water and retained more of it in the crop root zone than in the CNV [conventional] treatment. Water capture in the organic plots was approximately 100% higher than in CNV plots during September�s torrential rains�.

These torrential rains came after a earlier drought, where again the organic trial area coped better than the conventional one.

With the DOK trials, the organic plots not only exhibited higher soil-organism activity, but also a greater numbers and diversity of microorganism, earthworms and ground beetle species.

It appears then, that nourishing the soil rather than just the plant is the key. Synthetic fertilizers have given humanity the ability to make the grasses on the surface grow rapidly.

But what about the soil? Through a variety of techniques, organic farming not only improves soil quality, it works against the extreme weather conditions we are increasingly likely to face this century.

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Singing from the same hymn sheet: Organic Ireland(s)

In his keynote address to the recent Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA ) AGM, Minister for Food and Horticulture Trevor Sargent made all the right soundings.

He reiterated the government commitment to the �growth and development of the organic sector�.

The Organic Farming Scheme will reopen in January 2010 and the Minister also hopes to reopen the schemes of grant aid for the development of the organic sector in January.

Minister Sargent himself is one of IOFGA's 155 new organic producer applicants.

Managing the political balance nicely, when I spoke to him at the event, he pointed out that he was getting certified by both IOFGA and the Organic Trust.

�Even though my patch is probably the smallest one in the country registered as organic I am delighted with it and enjoy all of the fresh produce that it yields though small in scale�.

This small patch is in fact extremely fertile, informative and productive: you can follow its progress, from bottling beetroot to taking everlasting cabbage cuttings, here

The Minister also pointed out that, following the committment in the Programme for Government, �a voluntary non-gm label for producers is also in the planning stages.�

The most recent figures on the numbers farming organically were presented: �1,532 organic operators in Ireland with 48,911 hectares of land under organic production methods which represents about 1.25% of overall agricultural land� according to the Minister.

He also noted that �the number of applications for the Schemes of Grant Aid for the Development of the Organic Sector has increased substantially in the last two years�. Grant aid was suspended in July, as �the applications on hand had fully taken up this year's allocation�.However, �after the new estimates are decided I hope I can re-open these Schemes in January next.�

Progress in public procurement was noted: the Marine Institute has now upped its organic menu to two days per week, while the canteen in the mothership itself, Agriculture House, has committed two days per week to organic.

The minister also reaffirmed his commitment to organic horticulture, and spoke of a �deficit of expert horticultural advice� in Ireland.

This is however questionable. Hundreds of people have actually been trained in organic horticulture in Ireland over the years, far more than in any other organic farming or growing sector.

And yet very few have transferred over to being full time field scale growers, or even market gardeners.

At times, the organic horticulture training has seemed to be as much about social inclusion and self sufficiency as about ramping up production. Laudable and all as these former motivations are, there is also surely a place for the latter.

To this end, yet more efforts are being made, including the establishment of Organic Growers of Ireland, and the emphasis on organic horticulture in the programme for government. Also, the personnel on the new organic development body Foras Organach is revealing.

Padraig Fahy, organic grower and direct seller, who is actually one of those who came through Drumcollagher organic training collage, sells organic fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets in Galway and Westmeath.

Noel Groom, chair of Foras Organach heads up a major fresh fruit and vegetable wholesaler in north county Dublin.

IOFGA also announced a new board: The new chairperson is Dr. Sinead Neiland from the Organic College in Dromcollogher.

Newly elected board members are Dominic Leonard, an organic farmer in Laois; Clare O Connor owner of Manna Organic Store in Tralee and organic grower; Gillian Westbrook Research Executive from the ICSA and Kitty Scully from the Nano Nagle Centre for Ecology and Spirituality in Cork.

In Trevor Sargent, the organic sector has a Minister who understands both its needs and its motivations. From global food security to powdery mildew in his own back garden, he is on song - singing from the organic hymn sheet. Here's hoping the organic sector is in tune.