Round Table on Organic Agriculture and Climate Change established

(RTOACC media release) ”Organic agriculture has a strong potential for mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon in the soils at high rates and by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases due to avoidance of synthetic fertilizers and optimal use of organic material, ” said Urs Niggli, Director of FiBL and member of the Round Table.

The Round Table on Organic Agriculture and Climate Change (RTOACC) is a multi-stakeholder initiative with eight founding members. It brings together stakeholders and partners along the organic food production chain.  The principal objectives of the round table are

• Initiate, support and facilitate research on organic agriculture and climate change,
• Advise the international community on organic agriculture and climate change issues,
• Develop a measurement method to enable reliable quantification and certification of carbon sequestration in organic agriculture.

To achieve these goals, the members agreed on an action plan for the years 2010 and 2011. The main activity in 2010 will be the development of a methodology for the carbon market that will comply with general development goals such as the benefits for smallholders in developing countries. The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL coordinates these activities.
Antonio Compagnoni of ICEA agrees that the round table is a kick-off for putting organic agriculture on the agenda of the negotiations on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol and that it is an effort by the global organic community to make organic agriculture the leading system of sustainable agriculture.

Further information

The members of the Round Table: Contacts

• Antonio Compagnoni
  ICEA, Italy
  E-mail acompagnoni(at)interfree.it
• Niels Halberg
  International Centre for Research in Organic Farming Systems ICROFS, Denmark
  E-mail niels.halberg(at)icrofs.org
• Urs Niggli
  Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Switzerland
  Tel. +41 62 865 72 72, Mobile +41 79 218 80 30
  E-mail urs.niggli(at)fibl.org
• Johan Cejie
  KRAV ek för, Sweden
  E-mail Johan.Cejie(at)krav.se
  Tel. +46 706 65 93 76
• Timothy LaSalle
  Rodale Institute, US
  Mobile +1 80 56 30 12 42
  E-mail timothy.lasalle(at)rodaleinst.org
• Peter Melchett,
  Soil Association, UK
  Mobile +44 77 40 95 10 66
  E-mail pmelchett(at)soilassociation.org
• Markus Arbenz
  International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM, Germany
  Tel. +49 228 926 5010
  E-mail m.arbenz(at)ifoam.org
• Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, Italy
  Tel. +39 06 5705 672

Further information

• Dr. Matthias Stolze
  Chair of RTOACC, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Ackerstrasse, 5070 Frick, Switzerland
  Tel. +41 62 865 72 55, Mobile + 49 179 209 41 85
  E-mail matthias.stolze(at)fibl.org

Related information on the internet

• www.climate.fibl.org: FiBL pages on climate change and organic farming
• www.rodaleinstitute.org: Information on organic farming and climate change on the pages of the Rodale Institute.
• www.soilassociation.org: Info on soil carbon at the homepage of the Soil Association
• www.fao.org/organicag: Organic farming pages at the FAO homepage