More than just farming

The term organic agriculture frequently gets applied to the production of food without recourse to any synthetic chemical products such as fertilisers and pesticides. At Agrobio, a pioneer in the Portuguese organic agriculture sector, this dimension only plays a small role given that factors such as crop rotation, the bond between man and the earth and appropriately grasping the prevailing ecosystem all prove of equal importance. To this organisation, this holistic approach to farming represents the most sustainable means of producing food exactly because it “provides a bridge between knowledge on the past and the sustainable utilisation of technology,” Board President Engineer Jaime Ferreira explained.

Organic Portugal

Through to the mass usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides following the end of World War Two, the bulk of agriculture did not make any recourse to this means of raising yields. In the final phase of modernisation and the industrialisation of agriculture, that got labelled the Green Revolution, Portugal remained behind the practices already ongoing in the majority of European countries. Its agriculture was above all rudimentary and primary, family based and mostly for purposes of subsistence. Furthermore, while there may have been the occasional usage of chemical based boosters, their incidence was marginal and really insignificant when compared with the contemporary reality.

Irrespective of this historically low level of usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, Portugal has already witnessed the emergence some movements, similar to trends in other European countries such as France, Spain and Belgium, defending the scope for another type of agriculture that shuns chemical based artificial assistance and adapts to the respective prevailing ecosystem. Various residents in Portugal, some of French and Canadian origin, out of their awareness of the way in which agriculture was developing would inevitably result in severe environmental impacts into the medium term and also extending to individual well-being as the very foodstuffs became increasingly contaminated. As an alternative, various of these advocates of a more sustainable posture got together in 1985 and founded the Portuguese Association of Organic Agriculture, commonly known by its Portuguese abbreviation AgroBio.

AgroBio does not exclusively nor even primarily centre its interests on economic activities.

Although at first sight it would seem otherwise, AgroBio is not an exclusive preserve of farmers or other persons directly linked to the agricultural sector. As an aggregative pole of persons sharing common concerns over the quality of food, health, the environment and healthier agricultural practices, professors and doctors rank among its membership alongside others. This fact demonstrates the rising awareness of the importance of sustainability in the food chain among various different sectors of society.

Contrary to a cooperative, AgroBio does not exclusively centre its interests on economic activities as one of its main objectives involves fostering the development of organic agriculture in Portugal. To this end, the association acts across various facets ranging from technical production and commercial support, professional training, research, incentives for social agriculture and the reintegration of organic urban orchards and fields. Furthermore, as the eating of foods is every bit as important as its production, the association also engages in awareness campaigns among school age children over healthy diets. Within the framework of this awareness raising and spreading of information, the organisation also publishes a quarterly magazine “A Joaninha (The Ladybird)”.

In parallel, there are also various events staged by AgroBio, such as Healthy Earth (the National Fair of Organic Agriculture) as well as conferences and seminars and AGROBIO Day. On a more regular basis AgroBio Markets take place every Saturday at locations dotted around the country: Algés, Almada, Amadora, Aveiro, Carcavelos, Cascais, Campo Pequeno (Lisbon), Loures, Oeiras, Portimão and Setúbal.

In addition to these activities, one of the most important tasks of the Association is the certification of organic producers. In the words of Engineer Jaime Ferreira, this certification is a means of “providing consumers with the guarantee of production conformity”, which above all happens due to the distance that currently exists between the producer and final consumer and which prevents the latter from knowing about the means of production.

What’s still to be done

One of the ways in which AgroBio stands out among the various points of organic product sale that are popping up across Portugal comes with the question of product dislocation. The Association does not consider the transport of organic products over distances in excess of 50 kilometres from their site of origin to be sustainable, both ecologically and economically. This results both from the increased cost of production as well as the expanding carbon footprint.

Another ongoing battle of this organisation focuses on the European Union’s agricultural policies, which initially attempted to dissuade farmers from growing due to the major surpluses in production. Currently, and largely due to the abandoning of fields that resulted from the EU’s policies, the situation has now inverted with attention once again focused on raising European agricultural production and cutting the level of dependence on imported products. However, even while subsidies have risen in recent years, around 80% of all such funding goes to close to 20% of national producers, a position common to most European countries. The majority of the beneficiaries of these subsidies are essentially producers of milk, meat, soya, tomato, rice and oil producing plants, either representing the major inputs into the food transformation industry and its resulting processed products or into the animal feed sector. AgroBio strives above all to foster family based agriculture – that is, small and medium sized producers – as a means of prioritising agricultural and hence environmental sustainability.

One of the ongoing battles of this organisation focuses on the European Union’s agricultural policies.

Additionally, as sustainability involves a means of earning income in the present without jeopardising the future and because AgroBio works in the now on behalf of the future, its plans include expanding the number of organic markets held weekly in Portugal, specifically in Lagos and in the north of Portugal. Another measure undergoing implementation is a platform for dialoguing with the Food Safety and Economy Authority, with the specific objective of providing training on organic agriculture and its practices and conduct to members of staff from the aforementioned entity. In the short term, there shall also be a technical meeting on organic farming in Coimbra, in this city as it hosts the Higher Agrarian Schools, the only university to run an Organic Agriculture degree in Portugal.

Engineer Jaime Ferreira accepts that one of the major objectives of the Portuguese Association of Biological Agriculture is underpinning the family basis of this type of agriculture alongside campaigning in order to “ensure the best conditions to organic farmers, always investing in high quality projects and building up the scope for exports in an organised fashion”.

About the author

Hugo Filipe Lopes:Has a degree in sociology and a post-graduate qualification in clinical nutrition from the Egas Moniz Faculty. Collaborates with a number of online publications, a trainer and nutritional therapist. Honourable mentions in the Casa da Imprensa and Lisboa à Letra competitions..

Since the author undertook the research for this article with his bike, there was no C0 2 emissions