Decades of practical knowledge and experience acquired by the organic sector can help with the urgent need to address vulnerabilities in Europe’s agri‑food system, IFOAM Organics Europe said this week. 

In a letter sent to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the organic advocacy group emphasised that “building resilience means not only reacting to crises, but reducing these dependencies over time”. 

IFOAM acknowledges that organic is “not insulated from crisis”, but argues that “structural dependencies” in the dominant industrial farming model – especially on imported energy, synthetic fertilisers, feed and long supply chains – translate directly into vulnerabilities for Europe’s food security and resilience. 

Elaborating, IFOAM Organics Europe president, Jan Plagge, and director, Eduardo Cuoco, say in their letter: “In this context, the organic sector and its experience can contribute meaningfully to this reflection because it has built practical knowledge over decades and developed concrete solutions on how to strengthen resilience on the ground. Across Europe, organic operators and territorial initiatives are already working on approaches that directly contribute to this objective. These include, for example, stronger territorial organisation of food systems, closer links between production, processing and local markets, shorter and more diversified supply chains, greater attention to protein autonomy, and decentralised energy solutions such as on-farm renewables and renewable energy communities. Organic farmers also have experience in nutrient cycling, soil fertility management without synthetic fertiliser use and managing healthy soils that better cope with extreme weather events.”

IFOAM is urging the European Commission not just to focus on emergency provisions in its response to the current Iran crisis and its wider work on food security preparedness, but also to “address the root causes of vulnerability and recognise the contribution of territorial, decentralised and lower-dependency approaches to strengthening the resilience of the EU food system.”