Organics Olympiad 2011: Global Indices of Leadership in Organic Agriculture

Abstract

Organic agriculture is now a worldwide phenomenon which is practiced in 160 countries. The Organics Olympiad presents 12 indices of global organics leadership, each at three levels. It yields 26 countries as global organics leaders, and reveals that organics leadership is diversely distributed across countries, large and small, rich and poor, developed and less so, as well as across linguistic and cultural barriers. Australia leads the world in organic agriculture hectares, Finland leads in organic wild culture hectares, China leads in organic aquaculture hectares, and Portugal leads in organic forest hectares. Germany leads in biodynamic hectares, as well as with the number of members of the International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), and in the publishing of organics research papers. India is in the lead position for the number of organic producers, the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) leads in terms of the percentage of agricultural land dedicated as organic, and Denmark leads with the value of organics consumption per capita. Uruguay leads in the relative increase in organic hectares over the past decade, and Japan leads in the number of organics certifiers. The overall global organics leaders, on the basis of aggregated scores, are Germany, India and Denmark, in positions one, two and three, respectively. The successful global diffusion of organics, as demonstrated in this study, means that leadership lessons are available from a diversity of social, geographical, political, and ecological situations for both existing and aspiring organics leaders.