Lectures

I thank you for the opportunity of speaking on this special occasion.

There could hardly be a more important issue confronting not just farmers, but the whole of society, than the subject of this meeting: how to grow adequate food and produce adequate energy without the aid of rapidly diminishing and highly polluting fossil fuels. And the reason why it is so important is because: this is not a concern for the future -it is the reality at this very moment. The transition from a 250 year old fossil fuel powered society to a genuinely sustainable renewable energy fuelled society is to be achieved in less than 25 years -if we are to avoid an ultimate meltdown of most of what sustains our present planetary ecology. That is not my prognosis but the increasingly broadcast view of the majority of professional climatologists from all around the world.

by Julian Rose

Plenary speech at the First Congress on Organic Agriculture, Istanbul. Oct. 20th 2007

Introduction: At an unprecidented time of global upheaval and change, it is surprising to find many solutions exist right in our own back-yards. The most stark example centers upon food and energy production. In post industrial nations, food and energy needs are controled by transnational corporations determined to exact a profitable return on their investments and to control of the mass market.
But this leads to the disenfranchisement of local communities accustomed to retaining food sovereignity over the means of production of both these primary necessities. Fast fading oil supplies and the need to greatly reduce our global warming carbon footprints, mean that localized ‘community control’ of renewable and sustainable resources suddenly looks like the best bet.
It is also the logical way to establish a properly balanced and sustainable social, environmental and economic equilibrium within society.

This year, throughout Europe – and beyond – countries are struggling to come to terms with high summer temperatures and a serious lack of rainfall. In many cases water supplies have dropped to their lowest recorded levels, with rivers and streams flowing at a fraction of their normal volumes and lakes and reservoirs suffering the consequences. Crops have struggled to reach maturity and some have failed completely. This is a dramatic situation the implications of which cannot be ignored, especially since this is not a short term variation, but a trend in line with scientific predictions of the effects of global warming. Under these conditions water conservation is no longer a question of choice, it is a necessity. Proposals to privatise, commodify and globalise the planet’s remaining fresh water supplies must be resisted and reversed.

Seeds of Destruction in the Polish Countryside.

The Bio-Fuel Act, in the process of being adopted by the Polish Parlaiment , is a potentially poisoned gift to the Polish Countryside. Under the guise of promoting a clean, environmentally friendly fuel, the act will, in reality, encourage the widespread use of agrichemicals and open the door for the production of genetically modified crops.

ICPPC has, since its inception in 2000, worked to develop a wide ranging level of support to protect the unique values and qualities of the Polish countryside. We have lobbied both nationally and internationally, held conferences and seminars, published articles and pamphlets and spoken on both radio and television. We have visited farming communities in many Polish regions and, on every occasion, urged them to cooperate and work together both for their own well being and security and for the future of the Polish countryside. We have consistently warned of the severe problems which other countries have experienced after becoming members of the European Union – and of the particular vulnerability of the Polish farming community, given the extremely disadvantageous terms of the accession treaty.