Since the early 1980s organic agriculture has undergone enormous growth and innovation in the US and throughout the world. Some observers have pointed to the US Department of Agriculture's 1980 Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming as having provided the catalyst for many of these developments. It is important, however, to understand how the evolving character of organic ideology during the 1960s and 1970s helped lay the foundation for moving organic agriculture onto the US governmental agenda in the early 1980s. We explore these and other contextual factors surrounding the USDA Report's release, including its methods, findings and recommendations, and both positive and negative reactions, as well as those factors that led to the Report's declining influence by the decade's end. The need for agricultural sustainability has played an important role in shaping, not only the path of organic agriculture in the US but also the overall politics of American agriculture. Legislative efforts to support organic agriculture have evolved along with this altered policy environment and are considered here within the broader context of the politics of sustainable agriculture. Next, we consider the organic industry's transition from a privately managed enterprise to the pivotal role now played by the federal government in the administration of the National Organic Program. Calls to move ‘beyond organic’ are also examined. Finally, we explore the impact of sustainable agriculture, agricultural research and farm structure upon the future of organic agriculture in the US. The politics within these three interrelated domains of public agricultural policy will likely bear heavily upon the future of organic farming and the organic industry as a whole.

Despite an overall growth rate of the organic farming sector in the European Union, a considerable number of farmers cease organic production each year. Given the commitment of many European governments to increase the size of their organic farming sectors, reducing the rate of withdrawals from organic production may be an easier option than attracting new farmers into organic farming. In order to reduce the rate of withdrawals, knowledge about those farmers is required. However, to date, little is known about farmers who adopt and subsequently abandon organic farming. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature by comparing and contrasting the farm and personal characteristics of organic, former organic and conventional farmers. To this end, primary data from 596 Irish cattle and sheep farmers are utilized. Overall, the findings reveal significant differences between the three groups. More specifically, organic farmers are found to be the most environmentally aware farmers, who also rate information gathering as more important than the remaining two groups. Organic farmers are younger, better educated and more likely to be women than conventional farmers. Former organic farmers stand out to be the least risk averse group and also express lower environmental awareness than organic farmers. Conventional farmers are found to be the most profit oriented and least environmentally aware group. In addition, this group farms more intensely stocked enterprises than the remaining groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of some policy recommendations aimed at increasing the size of the organic sector.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an economically and ecologically important food legume crop. Ethiopia has a large collection of chickpea germplasm accessions; but, it has not been extensively characterized for desirable sources of agronomic and symbiotic significance for use in breeding programs. A study was conducted at two locations (Ambo and Ginchi) in 2009/2010 to characterize and evaluate Ethiopian chickpea germplasm accessions for symbiotic and agronomic performance. One hundred and thirty-nine germplasm accessions were evaluated with 16 other genotypes including non-nodulating reference checks. Differences among genotypes, locations and genotype by location interaction effects were significant for a number of characters. A number of accessions better performing over the improved genotypes were identified for both symbiotic and agronomic characters. The amount of fixed nitrogen ranged from 13 to 49% in foliage, 30 to 44% in grain and 28 to 40% in total above-ground biomass. Grain yield performance varied from 31 to 70 g per 5 plants and seed size ranged from 82 to 288 g per 1000 seeds. For both symbiotic and agronomic characters, landraces were found to be overwhelmingly superior to introduced genotypes, except for seed size, where the best genotypes were all from exotic sources. The result indicated that Ethiopian chickpea landraces have better genetic potential for improving a number of symbiotic and agronomic characters over the varieties currently in use. Selection of best individuals within and among the accessions would be expected to be effective.

Conservation agriculture (CA) systems are based upon minimal soil disturbance; crop residue retention and crop rotation and/or intercrop association are increasingly seen to recycle nutrients, increase yield and reduce production costs. This study examines the effects of CA practices on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality under the conditions encountered by smallholder farmers in two farming communities from 2005 to 2011 in Malawi, as part of the contribution to remedy a lack of supporting agronomic research for these relatively new systems. The drier agroenvironment of Lemu of Bazale Extension Planning Area (EPA) is characterized by sandy clay loam soils and lower rainfall. Here, CA showed positive benefits on maize yield after the first season of experimentation, with highest increases of 2.7 Mg ha−1 and 2.3 Mg ha−1 more yield in CA monocrop maize and CA maize–legume intercrop, respectively, than the conventional tillage in the driest season of 2009/10. In the high rainfall environment of Zidyana EPA (characterized by sandy loam soils), substantial maize yield benefits resulted in the fifth season of experimentation. Farmers spent at most 50 days ha−1 (US$140) producing maize under CA systems compared with 62 days ha−1(US$176) spent under conventional tillage practices. In Lemu, both CA systems resulted in gross margins three times higher than that of the conventional control plot, while in Zidyana, CA monocrop maize and CA maize–legume intercrop resulted in 33 and 23% higher gross margins, respectively, than conventional tillage. In Zidyana, the earthworm population was highest (48 earthworms m−2 in the first 30 cm) in CA monocrop maize, followed by a CA maize–legume intercropping (40 earthworms) and lowest (nine earthworms) in conventionally tilled treatment. In both study locations CA monocrop maize and CA maize–legume intercrop gave higher water infiltration than the conventional treatment. Improvements in crop productivity, overall economic gain and soil quality have made CA an attractive system for farmers in Malawi and other areas with similar conditions. However, for extensive adoption of CA by smallholder farmers, cultural beliefs that crop production is possible without the ubiquitous ridge and furrow system and residue burning for mice hunting have to be overcome.

Japan's rice terrace landscapes are not only used for food production but also appreciated as a place of high biocultural value. This paper pursues the question as to how far esthetic and spiritual values influence the motivation to participate in collective agricultural actions aiming at the conservation of traditional land use systems, the respective cultural (= traditional rural) landscapes and their biocultural diversity. Our results show that in the Ownership System of Ōyamasenmaida (Chiba Prefecture, Japan) landscape beauty is the main motivator for the mainly urban volunteers (the ‘tenants’) to participate in activities of the local Preservation Association, as well as for visitors who merely come to enjoy the scenery of the rice terraces. The active tenants, however, differ from the ‘passive’ visitors in their ecological interest and emotional attachment to the area. Interestingly, there is also a difference regarding the belief in nature spirits. A higher percentage of people who can imagine that such spirits are always present have been found among the tenants than among the visitors. Even more significant in this respect was the difference between female tenants and female visitors. To what extent spirituality is the cause for or an effect of involvement in nature conservation activities cannot be concluded from this survey. Future studies should therefore take a closer look at the connection between spirituality/religiosity and engagement in nature conservation activities. In Western countries (mainly in Central Europe or North America), nature conservation works on a more ‘scientific’ level, mobilizing engagement through scientific evidence on, for example, losses of species or biodiversity. Addressing the motivations of the volunteers on an emotional, esthetic or social level could be a promising way forward.

Agri-environmental schemes involving organic farming or set-aside management aim at promoting biodiversity and restoring ecosystem functioning in agrarian landscapes. Application of pesticides in these crop fields is strongly regulated facilitating the spread of weeds but also allowing for the establishment of endangered herbs and a variety of animals. Recent studies found gastropods and earthworms to be legitimate dispersers of seeds of wild plants. We assumed that both groups also play a significant role in the spread and establishment of wild plants within crop fields. Therefore, we are conducting a series of experiments in three different study systems on (1) the role of earthworms and gastropods as dispersers of rare herbs and weeds in an organic rye field in Germany, (2) the seed feeding behavior of gastropods of plants sown in fallow ground in Switzerland, and (3) weed dispersal in irrigated rice fields by golden apple snails in the Philippines.