In its World Food Day press release, the FAO recognizes that "Poor farmers cannot compete in an international marketplace if their goods are shut out of richer countries, while subsidized farm products from industrialized countries are sold at or even below production cost in poor countries." This recognition by the FAO that export subsidies and the dumping of agricultural products on poor countries create an unfair trading system is an important step. However, commitments to partially eliminate such economically and culturally devastating practices by 2010 only provides for an additional several years of suffering and destruction of cultural traditions in poor countries, and virtually ensures that the 852 million people around the world who are hungry will remain hungry, and also makes the stated World Food Summit goal of reducing this number to 426 million hungry by 2015 practically impossible.

IFOAM and the organic movements worldwide are making tangible and systematic efforts towards achieving its goal of the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially and economically sound systems that are based on the Principles of Organic Agriculture. As of the beginning of 2005, 558,449 farms in 108 countries, amounting to more than 26 million hectares and a market value of over 25 billion Euros, are currently certified. Many millions of people are involved in the production, marketing, processing and distribution of organic products, generating immense income for a great number of people while simultaneously enhancing biodiversity and protecting the environment for future generations.

organic farms steadily improved in organic matter, moisture, microbial activity and other soil quality indicators, that soil carbon in the organic systems increased by 15 to 28 percent, the equivalent of taking about 3,500 pounds of carbon dioxide per hectare out of the air and that organic farming reduced local and regional groundwater pollution by not applying agricultural chemicals.

With over 800 million hungry people on this planet, it must be noted that the major constraints to food security are economic, political and social in nature. Food security requires that a society not be based on inequity and discrimination and that international trade rules not impede efforts to develop the local food sector. Beyond these requirements, major changes must be made in policies, institutions, research and development to realize organic agriculture's full benefit for sustainable food security. Organic agriculture contributes to food security by increasing yields in low-input areas, conserving biodiversity and nature resources on the farm and in the surrounding areas, increasing income and reducing costs, producing safe and varied food and providing for long term sustainability. For more information on the role of organic agriculture in creating and enhancing food security, click here.

At the 15th IFOAM Organic World Congress “Shaping Sustainable Systems” in Adelaide, Australia from September 20th to 23rd 2005, the more than 1000 delegates from 72 countries issued the Adelaide Declaration, which calls upon governments worldwide to actively endorse and practically support organic agriculture, and to allocate budgetary funds for investment into organic agriculture, at the minimum proportionate to the organic sector's production in their countries, and to internalize social and environmental costs in the prices of agricultural products and remunerate organic farmers for ecosystem services they provide. It also calls on international agribusiness to listen to the consumer and to embrace more organic principles, and thus develop truly sustainable agricultural and food systems. For the complete text of the Adelaide Declaration, please click here.