Poland’s organic farmers look to EU

Date: 19/06/03

By Simon Coss in Twardogora, Poland

AS THE run-up to the 7-8 June referendum showed, the European Union's fan base among Polish farmers is not big.

The majority of Poland's small-time farmers fear that large, heavily-subsidized competitors from countries such as France and Germany will drive them out of business the day their country joins the EU.

But not everyone sees the prospect of Union membership in such a dim light.

Many members of the country's small but growing community of organic farmers are looking forward to the day they become fully fledged EU citizens.

Organic agriculture is still in its infancy in Poland - fewer than 1% of the country's farms use approved organic techniques.

The main reason for this is very simple - money. Poland is a relatively poor country in which many people spend up to half their incomes on food.

Increasing weekly shopping bills even further by buying expensive organic produce is not an option for most.

"It is true that organic food is more expensive than intensively produced alternatives, but we cannot make our products any cheaper," explains Marta Jedrzejczac, who runs a 60 hectare organic farm near Twardogora in Poland's Lower Silesia region. Jedrzejczac has a small flock of sheep that produce milk, meat and cheese. She also keeps chickens.

In order to respect organic agriculture standards she pays particular attention to the welfare of her animals, thus employing more farm hands than non-organic farms and passing the cost on to customers.

At present Jedrzejczac receives very little help from the Polish government for running her farm. But she hopes this will change when her country joins the EU, thanks to the Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

"The subsidies planned for farmers will help us invest. We have not spent any money here for ten years," she explains.

The CAP is still severely criticized for promoting an agriculture that favours quantity over quality. But, since 2000, a larger slice of its multi-billion euro annual budget has been set aside for promoting environmentally friendly farming.

As part of her investment plans, the Polish farmer wants to set up an educational centre at her farm to teach local children about organic agriculture.

She says the centre would provide her with a valuable supplementary income.

In EU jargon this kind of countryside economic diversification is known as "rural development" and, like environmentally friendly farming, it is something the CAP is now supposed to be promoting.

"Around 50% of the money Poland's farmers will receive from the EU is for rural development, so we think it is very important that people know about this policy," explains Maria Stanisewska, of the Polish Ecological Club (PEC), an environmental group that, with the help of a small EU grant, is running a countrywide information campaign on organic agriculture and rural development.

"We think that perhaps one-in-ten farms in Poland could adopt organic methods," explains Stanisewska. "But small farmers must think of developing other activities alongside agriculture, such as camping or educational facilities or shops. With the prices we have in Poland today small farms cannot survive on organic agriculture alone," she adds.

Given the fact that so few Poles use eco-friendly methods, some critics say the PEC's estimate that 10% of farms could go organic is very optimistic.

Organic farming is certainly no panacea for Poland's agricultural ills and the fact is that the sector looks set to go through some very painful changes over the coming years.

But the PEC insists that, in a country of 38 million people in which a third of the active population works on the land, even helping a small proportion of farmers to run successful organic farms could make a real difference.