Zhang Jibing, Hu Yunfeng, Zhou Zejiang文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Organic Food Development Center, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing, 210042文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Wang Maohua文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Registration Management Department, Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
After nearly 20 years of development, China's organic agricultural production area has reached 2 million hectares, ranking third in the world. At present, there are 23 organic product certification bodies in China, with 10,478 valid certification certificates and 7,266 certified enterprises, distributed across 1,614 counties nationwide. The domestic trade volume of organic products is approximately 80 billion yuan, and the annual export value is approximately 400 million US dollars.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
1 There are misunderstandings in the public's understanding of the development of organic agriculture and organic products文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
At present, when we speak of organic products, we mainly refer to organic food. The rapid development of organic agriculture and organic products has benefited from the rapid growth of the organic food market. The reason why organic food is widely favored by domestic consumers is that many people believe that organic food sits at the top of the pyramid and is the healthiest and safest food, thereby mistakenly believing that only by consuming organic food can health and safety be guaranteed. Organic food has therefore become the “darling” of many consumers. These one-sided views have affected the public's correct understanding of organic food, exaggerated the health functions of organic food, caused the public to place excessive expectations on organic food, and made the organic food industry bear too much responsibility for China's food safety. In fact, this is a misunderstanding of the organic food industry. In a strict sense, it is unscientific to claim that organic food is definitely safer and healthier than conventional food. In 2002, when officials of the United States Department of Agriculture released the U.S. organic agriculture standards, they particularly emphasized that it must not be publicized or stated that organic food is healthier and safer than conventional food. Although organic food may have lower pesticide and veterinary drug residues, there is no statistical evidence proving that it is safer than conventional food. Moreover, with the acceleration of global environmental integration, a completely pure ecosystem is very difficult to exist. In reality, developing organic agriculture and organic food will make a relatively large contribution to reducing pesticide and veterinary drug residues in products, but its contribution to heavy metals and hygiene indicators is limited.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Consumers are accustomed to applying product standards to organic food, but organic agriculture, the carrier for producing organic food, is indeed a mode of agricultural production. Organic food is a by-product of organic agricultural production, rather than the original intention and ultimate goal of developing organic agriculture. Therefore, the understanding of organic food should also be extended to the connotations of the development of organic agriculture and organic food. Establishing a correct view of organic food consumption is conducive to the sustainable development of the industry.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
The development of international organic agriculture and organic products emphasizes ecological concepts文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
From its very beginning, organic agriculture was not developed to solve food safety problems. When organic agriculture first emerged, the reason for not using chemically synthesized substances was more about reducing energy consumption, decreasing resource depletion, and cutting pollution to the environment and ecosystems. Reducing residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs in agricultural products is only one reason for developing organic agriculture, but it is not the only reason.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Organic agriculture originated in Germany and Switzerland in the 1920s. At that time, it was more of an ecological and environmental protection concept formed in response to the just-emerging petroleum agriculture, rather than a practical action. By the 1940s and 1950s, petroleum agriculture had achieved great development in developed countries and even briefly became the trend of world agricultural development. This form of agriculture, characterized by emphasizing development over protection, emphasizing production over management and care, sacrificing agricultural ecology as the cost, and featuring high input and high output, produced many serious problems, such as rapid reduction of vegetation, intensified soil erosion, decline in soil fertility, severe desertification and salinization, serious ecological destruction, and intensified environmental problems caused by agricultural non-point source pollution, leaving agricultural development facing difficulties. Therefore, on the basis of respecting natural laws, humanity reexamined its agricultural production methods and lifestyle, reunderstood and relearned nature, and sought agricultural production methods suitable for its own development. The book Silent Spring reflected the understanding and attitude toward environmental issues at that time, and therefore some pioneers began the practice of organic agriculture. The world's earliest organic farm was Rodale Farm, established by Mr. Rodale of the United States in the 1940s. As the impact of modern petroleum agriculture on the environment, ecology, and human health intensified, governments in developed countries began to attach importance to organic agriculture in the 1960s and 1970s and encouraged farmers to convert from conventional agriculture to organic agricultural production. The organic food market also initially took shape. After nearly half a century of long practice, the idea of organic agriculture was finally widely accepted under the active promotion of various countries. From the above analysis, it is not difficult to see that the initial development of organic agriculture originated from the concept of ecology and environmental protection. This is the cause of the development of organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
The healthy development of China's organic agriculture and organic products must focus on resolving conceptual issues文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
The development of China's organic agriculture has different origins compared with that of foreign countries, and it was mainly the following two reasons that drove the development of organic food.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
On the one hand, it was due to foreign market demand for organic food, and this demand became the initial driving force for the development of China's organic food. China's organic agricultural production can be traced back to 1990, when Zhejiang Tea Import and Export Company cooperated with a tea trading company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to help Peihou Tea Garden in Lin'an County, Zhejiang Province, obtain organic tea certification from the Netherlands SEC (now called SKAL), becoming China's first enterprise to obtain organic certification. In the following five years, China's organic certification mainly served exports.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
On the other hand, the development of organic agricultural production originated from the environmental protection benefits of developing organic agriculture. From the late 1950s to the end of the 20th century, Chinese agriculture underwent more than 40 years of rapid modernization. In most parts of China, traditional agriculture suitable for sustainable development gradually disappeared. People suffered deeply from the destruction of the rural ecological environment and urgently demanded a change in the situation at that time. In order to solve the environmental problems brought by the development of petroleum agriculture, starting in the 1980s, with the help of numerous research institutions, universities, and local governments, environmental protection departments began to promote ecological agriculture nationwide. Due to policy support from local government departments, by the mid-1990s, about 1,200 ecological demonstration villages and ecological demonstration farms had been established across the country. The construction of ecological demonstration villages and ecological demonstration farms made notable contributions to agricultural non-point source pollution control and rural environmental protection. However, because the development of ecological agriculture focused on policy research, technology extension, and the creation of development models, and did not establish corresponding certification standards for ecological agricultural products or closely link ecological agricultural products with the market, the sustainable development of ecological agriculture encountered obstacles. Nevertheless, much of the practical ecological agriculture technology and experience accumulated during this period laid a good foundation for China's subsequent development of organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Organic agriculture is a new approach to agricultural development proposed after people reflected on and explored the development of conventional agriculture, and it is a model of combining agricultural production with sustainable development. Using organic agriculture as a means to control non-point source pollution brought by agricultural development is an active exploration of China's sustainable agricultural development. Its notable advantage lies in the vigorous development prospects of the organic food consumer market, which can promote the sustainable development of organic agriculture. Therefore, in 1994, the former National Environmental Protection Agency established the Organic Food Development Center of the National Environmental Protection Agency, specializing in research and formulation of organic food management measures and production technical standards, as well as publicity, training, and extension work. This was the first institution established in China to promote the development of organic agriculture and organic food, marking that China's organic agriculture and organic food production began to formally enter the initial stage of development.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
The development of organic food abroad has a history of nearly 90 years, while in China it has only developed for nearly 20 years. Its rapid development occurred only after the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China established China's unified organic product certification system in 2004, less than 9 years ago. According to the special supervision and inspection conducted by the Certification and Accreditation Administration for four consecutive years from 2008 to 2011, the overall qualification rate of China's organic food remained above 95%. It can thus be seen that under China's current food and agricultural product supervision system, the overall situation of China's organic food certification is good, and the quality of certified products has been relatively well guaranteed.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
For China's organic food industry to achieve long-term, healthy, and sustainable development, it should focus on solving the problem of understanding the concept of developing organic food. Publicity for organic food should be increased so that consumers not only understand the safety of its products and the healthiness of their quality, but also understand the connotation of environmental protection. Consuming organic food is not simply a pure product consumption, nor is it only for personal health. In reality, it advocates a healthy, green, and environmentally friendly lifestyle concept. More importantly, consuming organic food supports agricultural environmental protection, contributes to controlling agricultural non-point source pollution, and leaves clean soil and water for future generations.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/
Reposted from the OFDC website original linkhttp://www.ofdc.org.cn/article_info.asp?n_id=1534文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/am/11409/