ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: A Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation

Changing climate patterns have already begun to have considerable impact on agricultural production in many regions. In the near future, shifts in local climatic conditions and the frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are expected to occur even more frequently, with potentially devastating effects for agricultural yields. Strategies need to be developed to make our food and farming systems more resilient to the effects of climate change. This report, released by the IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) EU Group, presents some scientific findings to show how organic farming as a holistic sustainable production system can contribute to effective climate change adaptation strategies for the farm sector. Topics include the organic farming practices as an investment in climate change resilience (A. Müller and A. Gattinger), a focus on the Northern Europe (J.E Olesen), on the Mediterranean regions (E. Aguilera, G. Guzmán and L. Ortolani) and an analysis of the international and European legal context of climate change adaptation in agriculture (A. Kölling and T. Elola-Calderón).