Developing Solutions For A Sustainable Future
There are many people in all walks of life concerned about the state of our planet’s environment, the health, the economic and social plight of peoples in all part of the world.
We have entered a millennium where the finite and diminishing resources of our planet will come under immense pressure. All the signs point to a future where primary goods and resources are scarce and vulnerable. How we feed ourselves and manage our basic resources – soil, water and air – is critically important.
Some researchers believe that fundamental changes need to be implemented within the very near future to avoid a structured breakdown in the global economy by the middle of the 21st century.
Few people openly agree with this “doomsday scenario” but many, when pressed, would not deny the existence of profound problems.
Current structures of food and farming systems are inappropriate to meet future challenges.
The Organic Research Centre is firm in its belief that realistic solutions can be found to these problems, and that it is possible to manage a change to production and consumption patterns that are within environmental limits.
Our purpose is to work with others, to promote such an agriculture and develop organic agriculture to comply with these principles.
We believe that it is necessary to develop an agricultural system based upon these principles:
1. To work as much as possible within a closed system, and draw upon local resources.
2. To maintain the long-term fertility of the soils.
3. To avoid all forms of pollution that may result from agricultural techniques.
4. To produce foodstuffs of high nutritional quality and sufficient quantity.
5. To reduce the use of fossil energy in agricultural practice to a minimum.
6. To give livestock conditions of life that conform to their physiological needs and to ethological principles.
7. To make it possible for agricultural producers to earn a living through their work and develop their potential as human beings.
8. To use and develop appropriate technology based on an understanding of biological systems.
9. To use decentralised systems for processing, distribution and marketing of products.
10. To create a system which is aesthetically pleasing to both those within and those outside the system.
11. To maintain and preserve wildlife and their habitats.