‘I don’t need hectares; I need neighbors’
These words belong to a French farmer complaining to a European Union (EU) registration official checking the farm to see if meets farming subvention terms. This is the concise and tragic expression of under-populated rural areas and diminishing agricultural population in Europe since the industrial revolution. However, for we continue the way we do, this is the situation Turkey will surely face before we turn the next decade.The 1st Organic Farming Congress gathered at Bahçeşehir University with the motto “Organic farming option in the transformation of Turkish agriculture” over the weekend. Similar works were done in various cities before. What is unique to this meeting was to bring together not just academics but also producers in organic farming business, consumers, NGOs, bureaucracy, international organizations and concerned citizens. For two days, around 300 participants shared experiences and ideas, made suggestions for solutions in the most interactive manner. Academics from the faculties of agriculture of Antalya, Bursa, Erzurum, İzmir, Konya and Samsun, in addition to experts from Bulgaria, France, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania as well as experts of the European Commission, United Nations and World Bank presented a total of 44 papers to discuss the significance of organic farming for our world’s future but also for rural development, creating employment and important added value. Factors including genetically modified seeds, institutional and academic inadequacies were detailed as solutions were sought.The words of Turkish Minister of Agriculture Mehdi Eker in his opening speech, “Everything comes back to its origins”, describing fatal course of events and quest for solutions was one of the most referred remarks of the congress.
Mistakes known to be true
“Farming is a primitive activity. If it is necessary, it should be practiced intensively and possibly with no manpower.” “Air, land and water are everlasting and could be used at profusion.” Apocalyptic days that are waiting for us in terms of climate change are the most concrete answers to these two major mistakes. Input-based organic and environment friendly farming is the most precious remedy to overcome these mistakes. They are the antidotes of our present way of producing, consuming and simply existence which follow solely the principles of a competitive market.
EU’s paradox
European countries are yearning for re-invention of the art of living in rural areas which they lost after the industrial revolution. Isn’t this why they became interested in those countries including Turkey that are not completed their industrial revolution phase. The European quest has peaked lately by the concerns about climate change. Within this frame the EU is reviewing models of production and consumption. Organic farming, bio-diversity and rural life are pillars of this yearning. Environmental awareness is becoming almost the only criterion for financial support provided for farming and rural areas. Of course it is not easy to bypass agricultural lobbies and ignore conventional production methods as well as the soil and water pollution of centuries; still the route to take is obvious.
However, in EU candidate countries, harmonization works in farming are inspired by the very paradigms from which the EU is trying to save itself. On one side, the EU is struggling to quit the productivist “green revolution” adopted in the aftermath of the war, and on the other side it is imposing pure competitive reasoning and decrease of population in rural areas as the outcomes of this old paradigm to candidate members, as clearly seen in the examples of Poland and Romania.What one should do is obvious. Turkey sits on a peerless treasury in terms of bio-diversity and farming knowledge. China and India might be its tough competitors in textile and some other industries but definitely not in farming. However blindly envy to developed countries and repeat the mistakes they do kills farming and rural areas in Turkey. But the country cannot sustain an ever decreasing rural population. First of all, basic principle should be to adopt a policy to preserve rural population. Organic farming, or more precisely production with environmental awareness under environment friendly circumstances, is the milestone of this policy. The EU, along the way, needs to be persuaded for this change of paradigm in its approach to Turkish agriculture. Results will be garnered in a publication. Speeches and contributions will be backed in exclusive television programs on the Turkish Radio and Television (TRT); therefore farmers will be reached out. While wishing to see more of similar meetings in the future, participants voiced that renewed interest in not just organic farming but also agriculture is needed.