Seeds of change
By : Juliet D. Golden
When farmers Aleksandra and Mieczyslaw Babalski left their jobs at a large state-run collective farm (PGR) in the mid-1980s to launch their own organic operation, the move raised more than a few eyebrows from neighbors used to more conventional methods of working the land.
"They looked at us as if we were freaks," said Aleksandra, co-owner of Wytwornia Makaronow Bio, a pasta manufacturing concern located on the Babalski's eight-hectare farm northeast of Torun. The Babalskis' pasta is made exclusively from organically grown wheat no synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides are used.
In turning to natural farming methods, the Babalskis not only departed from their training, they also cut ties with mainstream Polish agriculture. Since the 1970s, agricultural production has increasingly resembled the high-tech, intensive-growth methods used on farms in Western Europe and the United States, where chemicals and mineral-based fertilizers were employed en masse to minimize crop illnesses and insects, and to bump up crop yields.
"I knew a lot about the use of chemicals in agriculture," Mieczyslaw said. Contrary to their training, the couple now use only natural farming methods to increase crop yields.
But going organic in the 1980s was a solitary venture. Babalski made the move convinced that organic farming yielded healthier foods than conventional methods. "At first I was completely alone," he said. "Other farmers stood by and took a wait-and-see attitude."
Mieczyslaw left the PGR after a three-month stint on organic farms in Switzerland in the mid-1980s, where he took courses on the topic. Those experiences reshaped the way he looked at food production.
"It reminded me of when I worked on a farm when I was younger," Mieczyslaw said. "(With organic farming), you didn't look for illnesses and pests like in conventional agriculture. Here everything is interdependent, weather, insects, weeds and herbs everything is necessary and everything has a purpose."
While the Babalskis were loners in the mid-1980s, today they're the models for a growing legion of farmers looking to convert their farms. At a time when the country is under increasing pressure to modernize its bloated agriculture sector, more farmers, politicians and environmental activists are pushing to go organic. And increasingly, organic farming is looking more viable.
While 10 years ago only 27 organic farms (300 total hectares) were registered in Poland, last year that number had increased to 555 (11,000 total hectares), according to environmental agency Stiftung Okologie & Landbau's (SOL) web page.
While the total area of land organically farmed represents a fraction of the 18.5 million hectares of agricultural land in Poland, for many the method is an idea whose time has come. According to Maria Staniszewska, president of the Coalition for Organic Farming (COF), by year's end, about 1,500 farms will be certified as organic or be in the process of converting to one, a three-fold increase over last year's figure.
In addition, the Agriculture Ministry has recently set a goal to have 10,000 eco farms in operation by 2009, according to Urszula Soltysiak, a scholar at the Warsaw Agriculture University (SGGW). She is also one of the founders of Agro Bio Test, one of three independent inspection bodies responsible for certifying and inspecting organic farms in Poland.
"It may be wishful thinking, but I think that organic farming has a good chance of developing in Poland," Soltysiak said. "The (Agriculture) Ministry is no longer hiding the fact that it plans to support organic farming until 2009, which means that we can expect a boom in (organic farming)."
If the ministry's program is successful and activists have their way, organic farming could move from the margins of agriculture to defining rural Poland in the 21st century.
"If we're looking for solutions for Polish agriculture and rural areas, let's not forget about (organic farming)," said Ryszard Kalinski, a goat farmer from Nowy Gieraltow near the Czech border. Kalinski's farm was qualified as organic in August. "I'm convinced that 40% of farms in Poland could become organic."
Seizing the moment
While it is unclear whether 40% is the result of calculated reality or Quixote-like dreams, organic farming in the past few years has without a doubt worked its way into the daily lingo on farms across the country. It also stands to change the face of agriculture, which is being overhauled in preparation for accession to the European Union (EU).
But while the idea of making Poland a country of organic farmers may seem a passing fashion, on a European scale Poland looks to be a trailing its more developed neighbors. Organic farming is becoming a permanent fixture on the food-production scene in Western Europe, mostly as a result of food safety scandals.
According to EU data, between 1993 and 1997, the area of organically farmed land in Western Europe more than doubled from around 890,000 hectares in 1993 to 2.2 million hectares in 1997. Over the same period, the number of recognized organic farms and those undergoing conversion rose from 35,000 to almost 97,000.
Moreover, on a country-by-country basis, governments have included organic farming as part of national agriculture policy. In Sweden and Austria, roughly 10% of all farms became organic by this year. In Sweden alone, the government has set a target of doubling that figure by 2005 and tripling it in 2010, according to SOL.
Even compared with other post-communist countries, Poland is a latecomer to organic farming. By 1999, 2.5% of agricultural land in the Czech Republic was organically farmed, according to SOL. While in Hungary only 0.5% of all farmland was devoted to organic farming, 95% of all organic products were exported, largely to Western Europe. SOL estimates that the total value of organic products exceeded E15 million.
Due to the success of organic farming in Western Europe and the low level of mass agriculture production in Poland and other post-communist countries, organic farming presents a viable niche for farmers.
"Healthy food produced naturally in Poland offers a significant opportunity for this country," said Jan Chodkowski, a senator from Solidarity Election Action (AWS) who sits on the agriculture committee. "I think that if Poland is thinking about integration with the EU and about finding buyers for its products in Europe, then it needs to produce natural healthy products made in accordance with nature."
Catching on
While perhaps slow on the uptake, politicians and Agriculture Ministry officials seem to have recently jumped on the organic farming bandwagon and forked out the cash to back eco-farming initiatives. The goal to have 10,000 organic farms in Poland by 2009 would not only mean an 18-fold increase over current levels, it would signify that about 0.5% of agriculture land would be organically cultivated.
To support the conversion process, the government started refunding inspection costs for organic farmers in 1998. To maintain certification, every spring organic farmers must open their farms to individual inspectors, at a cost of zl. 300-zl. 600. In 1999, the government moved to support organic farmers through direct annual payments depending on the size of farm and the types of products cultivated. Not only were subsidies paid to farmers who already received certification, farmers in the two-to-three year process of converting from conventional agriculture to organic regimens also received financial backing.
Subsidies have convinced many farmers to consider becoming organic growers. Nowy Gieraltow's Kalinski became interested in certification back in 1996, but refrained from making the move until two years ago when subsidies kicked in. According to him, not only will the subsidies compensate farmers for potential losses during the few years when the farm is being converted to an organic regimen, the direct payments per hectare will help farmers compete on the market.
"This is very concrete support," Kalinski said. "This is an element that will radically improve the profitability of operations."
In an effort to further bolster organic farming schemes, starting this year the government announced a three-fold hike in subvention levels. Farmers said that the increases will not only help improve the economic health of their farming operations, but it will also pull in more newcomers to organic farming schemes. For veteran organic farmer Teresa Barwicka, the increase in subsidies means that at the end of this year the government will send her a check for zl. 2,500, which is zl. 1,500 more than she received last year.
"It's a lot better (than it used to be)," she said. "It really helps because a lot of farmers will make decisions based on subventions."
Politicians, farmers and environmental activists also said that current draft legislation on organic farming will be the most important impulse in propelling the organic movement from the margins to the mainstream of Poland's agriculture.
As early as this month, the law is poised to be debated in a joint agriculture and environment commission in Parliament.
According to organic enthusiasts, current draft legislation will not only clearly define what products are considered organic, it will also set rules for monitoring and subsidizing organic farming schemes in Poland. In addition, many in the industry view the legislation as the first step in opening the way for Poland's organic food products to be exported to the EU.
"This law will mean that organic agriculture will become an official form of agriculture, just like conventional agriculture," said Janusz Jedrzejczak, a specialist in animal husbandry. Jedrzejczak and his wife raise rare breeds of Polish farm animals in Poreby, north of Wroclaw.
Selling organic
The law on organic farming will also awaken demand for these products inside Poland, proponents said.
"The law sets out clean and clear criteria for organic products," said Staniszewska of the COF. "(With the law), the consumer will know what organic products are and how they are labeled."
But some argue that the law won't be enough. While it appears that government initiatives are beginning to pay off as far as popularizing organic farming among farmers themselves, without a government information program promoting organic farm products inside Poland, the movement could become a victim of its own success. According to Soltysiak of SGGW, the government should now launch a twin program that will promote organic products on a national scale.
"If consumers aren't aware about the value of products, (the number of) farms will multiply and there won't be anyone to buy the products," he said.
Farmers seem to be catching on. The Jedrzejczaks are looking to market their specialty lamb and poultry products along with other locally based organic farmers under a soon-to-be created Dolina Barycza brand, named after the nature park in southwest Poland that skirts their 50-hectare farm.
While supermarkets, with their emphasis on mass sales of processed products, are anathema to organic farmers' goals, in the long run many in the sector consider supermarkets a key strategic outlet for organic products in the future.
"If consumers like supermarkets, there's no reason to start out by trying to convince them not to like them. We need to change our tactics," Staniszewska said.
