![]() You can read more about this early development in the report Building Sustainable Organic Sectors written by Inger Källander and yours truly.Īfter that, development of organic acreage has been considerably slower and in 2022 there were 600,000 hectares organically managed and the number of organic farms is much lower than in 2005, both because of the general development of farming and that a considerable share of the smallest farms dropped out of certification (they might still farm organically). With 19% of its farmland managed organically, Sweden almost achieved the next national goal of 20% organic farming in 2005. In twenty years from 1985 grew from a few hundred producers with a few thousand hectares to 19,000 organic farmers with 510,000 hectares. The successful development after the 10% target led to new national targets in 20. This coincided with Swedish membership in the EU, through which Sweden got access to the development programs for organic farming. A national target of 10% organic in the year 2000 was adopted unanimously by the Swedish Parliament 1994. There was massive political support and organic was media’s darling for decades. There were some ups and downs but generally the trend was positive. Organic really took off with a rapid development from the foundation of KRAV 1985. But that is another story, let’s go back to Sweden. Parallel to this I still lived in the farm commune while working as a consultant all over the world. In the end I became a member of the IFOAM World Board and was its president 2000-2005. Through that work I also came into contact with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (Now IFOAM-Organics International) and engaged myself in the development of the IFOAM accreditation program. Both organisations still exist, even if the nature of KRAV has changed quite a lot since that time.īecause I couldn’t keep my mouth shut I ended up as a working chairperson of KRAV and when the organisation became a bit more consolidated, the executive director. ![]() ![]() That meeting was followed by some more and in the end it led to the formation of an organic farmers association, Ekologiska Lantbrukarna, and a certification body, or a control body as we called it, KRAV. The year, after we invited organic farmers from the rest of the country for a meeting to discuss how we could further develop organic farming in Sweden. It was very successful and we got a lot of attention from other parts of the country. ![]()
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