Cómo medir la elasticidad: modelo log-lineal

Introduction

Organic action plans are usually the result of many years of dialogue and meetings among the organic movement and the industry with the explicit purpose of encouraging the devel- opment of a national or regional action plan that reflects the passions, concerns, hopes, and visions of this diverse and thriving community.

An organic action plan is not a scientific or peer-reviewed exercise but rather an organizing effort to engage more effectively in reaching organic agriculture’s potential. The real measures of progress on organic food and agriculture will only be as good as our collective abilities to articulate clear goals, benchmarks, and timelines. The central challenge is how best to continue the growth of organic agriculture while preserving organic integrity and retaining farmer and customer confidence.

Background

Since the late 1980s, organic farming development in the European Union (EU) has been stimulated mainly by two factors related to strong consumer demand and policy support. The first factor is the EU Regulation 2092/91 (now replaced by EC Regulation 834/2007 and EC Regulation 889/2008 and updates), which is the EU-wide legal basis for organic farming. The second factor is the area payments in the framework of EU rural development programs (EC Regulations 2078/92 and 1257/1999).

Organic action plans provide a framework for integrating policies and measures in order to encourage organic sector development. Thus action plans serve as a strategic instrument for governments to achieve policy goals, particularly when multiple policy areas (such as agriculture, environment, and trade) and different levels of policy formulation are to be integrated. Action plans can avoid contradictory policies whilst also ensuring that the dif- ferent measures are complementary.

Furthermore, action plans allow specific bottlenecks to be better addressed as well as ena- bling broad stakeholder involvement in policy formulation. They also provide the oppor- tunity to establish forums to develop a strategic vision of the organic movement.

Finally we can say that organic action plans formulated by governmental administrations can encourage politicians to implement action to develop the organic sector.

Framework

Whereas in the 1990s there were only few countries with an organic action plan (Denmark and Sweden), in the 2000s in many countries, in particular most EU countries, action plans were launched. In December 2008 there were 27 organic action plans being implemented in

1 _{Victor Gonzálvez, Sociedad Española de Agricultura Ecológica (SEAE). Camí del Port, S/N. Km 1. Edif ECA Pat Int} 1, Apdo 397, 46470 Catarroja, Spain, Tel. +34 961267200, Fax: +34 961267122, e-mail [email protected], www.agroecologia.net

2 _{Otto Schmid, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Ackerstrasse, CH-5070 Frick, Internet www.fibl.org}

3

Dr. Helga Willer, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Ackerstrasse, 5070 Frick, Switzerland, www.fibl.org

Europe: 17 at national level and 10 at regional level (Gonzalvez 2009). New organic action plans were approved in 2009 in Croatia at national and at regional level (Dalmatia). In other countries after the implementation and finalization of the first and second organic action plan, no new one has been approved. In other countries, for instance Portugal, action plans were formulated but never implemented. The same has happened in some regions like Gali- cia in Spain. The European Action plan for organic farming published in 2004 (EC 2004) is formally still in force, it remains unclear if a prolongation is foreseen.

For this article, the table with existing information compiled by the European funded OR- GAP Project (www.orgap.org, see Gonzálvez, 2009), was updated with the support of ex- perts and the IFOAM EU Group (www.ifoam-eu.org). This was followed by a short e-mail survey sent to selected IFOAM-EU members. To complete the information an internet search was conducted. The summarized results are presented in Table 30.

The number of organic action plans has slightly decreased from the last review at the end of 2008. There were 27 organic action plans in Europe in place in 2008, and now there are 26. Mainly Eastern and accession countries have implemented organic action plans. Currently in Central and Northern Europe only a few new organic action plans have been worked out or updated. There is a tendency to let market forces and rural development schemes sup- port organic farming—in many cases the Rural Development Programs have been used to formulate some sort of organic action plan. Organic action plans are increasing at the re- gional level in particular. In some countries, like England, organic action plans have achieved an increase in production and domestic consumption.

Final remarks

Although no prolongation of the EU organic action plan has been decided, national organic action plans are still an effective mechanism to develop organic food and farming by coor- dinating rural and general public policies. Particularly at national and regional level, organic action plans can complement several Rural Development Program measures, for example, by promoting domestic consumption of organic produce or by supporting organic farmers in marketing their produce.

Table 30: Organic action plans in Europe 2010

Country Name of Action

Plan Period /funds Quantitative targets Qualitative tar-gets Albania1 Albanian agricul-

tural policy, in- cludes an organic action plan and two forms of support

2007-2013 Contributions to

cover 50 % certifi- cation costs & financial support for olive fly traps