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Each of the case example fiches below describes an initiative in different parts of organic food systems within the European Union, delivering more detailed information on possible ways to help develop organic systems.
- Developing an organic brand in rural Austria
- Establishing a knowledge exchange network in Spain
- Cross-visits on organic seed production in the EU
- Organic and regional feed for monogastrics in the EU
- Reducing the use of contentious inputs in the EU
- Self-sufficient food network in Finland
- The concept of Bio-District in Italy + two cases
- Joint work for organic market development in Slovenia
These eight examples were selected among a list of around 60 organic farming projects in the EU. By downloading the Excel table, you will be able to select cases of interest to you based on some key features. Detailed explanations about the methodology for the collection of cases, and selection of some for the creation of fiches are available below.
Methodology for the collection of organic farming cases, and creation of the fiches.
The creation of the organic farming case example fiches was carried out through a first screening of various sources, the application of guiding criteria to select the projects screened, and a final selection of 5-10 projects.
In a first time, EU projects on organic farming were collected from various sources: the European Network for Rural Development ‘ENRD’ projects database (using the search function and appropriate keywords), the agricultural European Innovation Partnership ‘EIP-AGRI’ projects database (using the search function and appropriate keywords), and three experts from DG-AGRI on organic farming were also asked to provide relevant cases, including research projects funded through the Horizon 2020 programme. All collected projects were registered in a list of around 60 projects with key features for each project: web links, project type, geographical location (EU – Member State), geographical level, whether it is focused exclusively on organic or not, type of system (e.g. arable crops or animals), main topics addressed, language of materials, and sector(s) of the food chain covered by the project.
In a second time, relevant cases for which a fiche would be created were selected by DG AGRI experts . The selection was based on a series of pre-established and weighted criteria:
- Key criteria
- Geographical location: max. 1 case per country, and max. 50% of EU-level project
- Usable material in English
- Diversity in the topic addressed with an emphasis on topics identified by experts as challenges for the development of the organic sector in EU: commercialization, conversion, harmful inputs, systemic approaches.
- Other criteria:
- Preference for projects focused on organic
- Ideally at least one project about each type of system
- Diversity in the sector of the food chain (not only about production)
- Project type: diversity, no particular preference
- Geographical level: diversity, no particular preference
For the geographical location, there was a preference for cases from EU countries where the development of the organic sector is lagging behind (less than 5% of the UAA: MT, IE, BG, RO, PL, NL, LU, CY). However, very few cases from these countries were found.
Finally, once the final list of cases was agreed upon, the fiches were created using all available material. A template was developed and used for all the organic farming case example fiches. To fill in this template, relevant information was extracted from one or several of the following sources: the final report of the project, the EIP or ENRD fiche, the project website, websites of national or regional public organizations, and/or scientific papers or reports.