Ke Bingsheng, Professor of School of economics and management, China Agricultural University, and President of China Rural Professional Technology Association. He used to be director of rural economic research center of the Ministry of agriculture (now the Ministry of agriculture and rural areas) and President of China Agricultural University.
More than 30 years ago, when I was studying in Germany, I heard a new word: organic products. Ask the German professor what he means. He said, for example, those apples that are dark in appearance, may eat insects, and cost twice as much are organic apples. From his tone, we know his attitude.
Now, in China, the word organic food has been quite popular. However, most people's understanding is not very accurate. They regard organic food as the safest agricultural product.
The concept of organic agriculture was put forward in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. It is mainly aimed at the situation of soil hardening, soil erosion and soil fertility decline caused by large-scale use of chemical fertilizer.
There are many kinds of understanding and expression about organic agriculture. The international organic agriculture Union (IFOAM), established in 1972, organized a special expert group, which took three years to put forward a definition. The main idea is that organic agriculture is a production system to keep the soil, ecosystem and human health, which depends on the ecological process, biodiversity and cycle to adapt to the local conditions, instead of using the inputs with adverse effects, and combines tradition, innovation and science to facilitate the shared environment and promote the fair relationship and good quality of life of all participants 。
The FAO also has a definition of organic agriculture, which emphasizes the promotion and strengthening of agricultural ecosystems, including biodiversity, biological cycle, soil ecological activities, and does not use inputs from outside agriculture.
To put it bluntly, organic agriculture is a mode of production, which does not use any chemical inputs, including chemical pesticides, seed coating agents, fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones, etc., nor genetically modified seeds. If it is a crop product, there should be no chemical fertilizer and pesticide residues in the soil; if it is a meat, poultry, egg and milk product, its feed must also be an organic product.
This method of production, in essence, was adopted by our ancestors more than 100 years ago. Of course, organic agriculture has made progress in technology. For example, in the field of disinfestation, a physical disinfestation method is invented, including light and yellow board trapping. In terms of biotechnology, there are also technologies that do not need to be genetically modified. For example, through the analysis of biotechnology, it is found that some rice varieties contain special genes. If this kind of rice is planted, no pesticides are applied and no rice blast will occur.
After decades of practice, organic agriculture has developed to a certain extent. But its share in the whole agriculture is still very limited. According to the latest statistics of IFOAM, there are 186 countries, 2.8 million farmers, engaged in organic agricultural production on 71.5 million hectares of land. Two thirds of the land is for animal husbandry, 20% for field crops, and the rest for perennial fruit trees.
The proportion of agricultural land and cultivated land occupied by organic agriculture in the world is about 1%. Liechtenstein is the highest, 39%, Austria 20%, Sweden 17%, Switzerland 13%, EU 6.2%, USA 0.6%, China 0.3%. The countries with the highest per capita consumption of organic food are Switzerland and Denmark, with 312 euros.
The power to promote the development of organic agriculture comes from three aspects. The first is producers. The advocator of organic agriculture thinks that overuse of chemical fertilizer and pesticide is not conducive to the sustainable development of agriculture itself. He advocates maintaining the ecological cycle characteristics of traditional agriculture and treating the farm as a living organism.
The second is the government. It is considered that organic agriculture, without chemical input, can reduce the pollution of soil and water, and is conducive to the protection of ecological environment.
Finally, consumers. Without the recognition of consumers, organic agriculture cannot exist and develop. There are three main reasons why consumers are willing to buy organic products with high prices: first, organic products are safer; second, organic products are more nutritious; third, organic products are more delicious.
IFOAM and FAO's definition of organic agriculture do not explicitly involve the safety and quality of organic products. Those who value organic agriculture highly conclude that organic products are better from the production mode of organic agriculture.
Organic agriculture has low production and high cost, so it must be sold at a high price. If you can't say that organic products are safer or better in quality, you can't sell them at a high price.
The existence and development of organic agriculture proves that some consumers believe that organic products are better, while organic agriculture only occupies about 1% of agricultural land so far, which shows that most consumers still doubt this conclusion, or feel that the price of organic products is too high and the value of things is not what it is.
How about the quality of organic products? Scholars in developed countries have done a lot of research, and the basic conclusion is that reliable conclusions cannot be drawn. In terms of taste, only individual products, such as some organic fruits, have less water content and stronger taste than conventional fruits.
In China, the pursuit of organic products mainly comes from the fear of pesticides and additives. Although according to the existing testing, as long as the producers strictly abide by the regulations, conventional products and organic products have the same safety, consumers still believe in natural products.
In terms of taste, it is believed that the taste of organic products is better and inaccurate. The key factor determining the taste of agricultural products is the variety and natural conditions for crop products, and the variety and breeding time for livestock and poultry products. For example, Wuchang rice is delicious because of the good varieties of rice flowers and the appropriate local natural conditions; the "native chicken" meat is delicious because it grows slowly and keeps for a long time, which makes the muscle fiber thick and the intramuscular fat and aromatic substances accumulate more.
At present, the market share of organic food in China is still very small. First, the price is too high. Second, consumers are not sure about the authenticity of organic food. To solve these two problems, there is still some room for the development of organic food market in China.
From a long-term perspective, the most effective way to reduce the input of chemicals is to develop seeds with special and good quality through biotechnology, which can resist insects and diseases, and improve the fertilizer efficiency. If this idea can be accepted by organic agriculture, the development prospect of organic agriculture will be much broader.
According to the development of organic agriculture in the past few decades, it is difficult to have a fundamental change in the characteristics of low output and high cost of organic agriculture for a long time in the future, and the development of organic agriculture is still very limited.
However, organic agriculture, which is also a good practice of traditional agriculture, such as straw returning to the field, organic fertilizer, rotation and fallow, rice and shrimp co cropping, can be used in modern agriculture as a supplement and partial replacement of modern agricultural technology.
Source: Farmers Daily