2024 Volume 60 Issue 1 Pages 27-34
Global sustainability challenges, such as climate change, are creating more consensus around the necessity to transition to sustainable farming methods and localized systems of production and consumption. In the European Union, conversion to organic farming is now seen as crucial to achieve sustainability goals. Italy, in particular, is one of the leading countries in terms of the number of organic farms and farmland, and has recently enacted legislation recognizing ‘organic districts’ as forms of territorial organization focused on organic production. This article provides an overview of recent organic farming developments in Italy, highlighting the implications for Japan. Despite socio-cultural differences, Italy and Japan both have a high percentage of small-scale farms in mountainous and hilly areas. The two countries also face similar challenges, such as the low profitability of conventional small-scale farming, aging farming populations, and farmland abandonment. Unlike Japan, however, Italy has been more successful in adopting organic farming, also thanks to the positioning of organic agriculture as a tool for rural revitalization and the survival of small farms. The conclusions underscore lessons that Japan could draw from Italy’s experience in promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development, especially following the introduction of Japan’s Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems (MIDORI).
The multiple functions of agriculture in supplying a wide range of ecosystem and social services beyond food and commodity production are now widely recognized, also in connection with broader sustainability and resilience issues in agri-food systems. These issues are now gaining center stage, considering global sustainability challenges such as climate change, and there is increasing consensus around the fact that addressing these challenges will require a widespread shift towards sustainable farming methods, such as organic farming, in connection with integrated territorial approaches to food and agriculture.
In the European Union, recent policies such as the Farm to Fork strategy have highlighted the centrality of organic farming to achieve Europe’s sustainability goals, and the European Commission has set out a comprehensive Organic Action Plan.
Among EU countries, Italy is one of the leaders in terms of number of organic farms and extension of organic farmland. Furthermore, recent national legislation (Law 23, 9 March 2022) has established new rules and regulations around organic farming in Italy, also recognizing for the first time the concept of ‘organic districts’ as specific territorial entities. Organic districts have been established so far mainly in Italy, but interest in these new rural governance models has been growing, thanks to their holistic approach and potential for scaling up sustainable agri-food systems and increasing rural sustainability and resilience.
This paper provides an overview of the recent developments around organic farming and rural development in Italy. It also outlines some implications for Japan, especially in light of recent policies in support of sustainable farming, chiefly the MIDORI strategy launched by the Japanese government in 2021. A comparison between Italy and Japan is justified by the fact that, despite socio-cultural differences, the two countries are similar in terms of physical geography (a prevalence of mountainous and hilly areas), which in turn has led to a similar farming system structure with a high number of small farms. The prevalence of small farms located in marginal areas has also led to similar issues, such as the low profitability of conventional small-scale farming and the consequent lack of generational renewal in agriculture, the aging of the farming population, and widespread farmland abandonment in marginal areas. Unlike Japan, however, in Italy the adoption of organic farming has been considerably faster and more widespread, also encouraged by the positioning of organic farming as a tool for rural revitalization and the survival of small farms.
Italy’s agricultural production is divided between arable crops (57% of the total Utilized Agricultural Surface, hereafter UAA), permanent pastures and grassland (25%), and permanent crops such as olives, grapevines, orchards and citrus fruit (17%) (CREA, 2022). Italy’s climatic, territorial and socio-cultural diversity, due to the country’s geographical configuration, has also given rise to a variety of highly diversified agroecosystems that have survived until today thanks to the preservation of traditional varieties, breeds and production systems by small-scale and peasant farmers (Conversa et al., 2020; Negri, 2003). This diversity also contributed to the strong territorial differentiation in terms of agricultural products, for which the Italian agri-food sector is internationally famous. Italy, for example, has the highest number of traditional food products registered with a designation of origin (DOC, DOP, IGT, etc.) (ISTAT, 2016).
Italian agriculture is also characterized by the prevalence of family farms smaller than 5 ha, which represent 63% of the total, although they cover only 12% of the total UAA. Over 20% of these farms are smaller than 1 ha (CREA, 2022). The number of farms has, however, steeply declined over the past decades. Between the last two agricultural censuses in 2010 and 2020, for example, there has been a 30% decrease in the number of farms (CREA, 2022). Many Italian rural areas also suffer from abandonment and decline, especially in the so-called ‘aree interne’ (inner areas, a term that essentially indicates marginal rural areas) (Belliggiano et al., 2020; Iommi & Marinari, 2017).
The situation of hilly and mountainous areas in terms of farmland abandonment and depopulation is remarkably similar in both Italy and Japan. Like Japan, mainstream agricultural support measures tend to favor productivist approaches, and have been leading to an increase in farm size in agriculturally favored areas and an increase in the abandonment of land in marginal areas (Eurostat, 2013). Between 1982 and 2020, the redistribution of farmland ownership in Italy has led to an increase in the average UAA, from 5 ha in 1982 to 11 ha in 2020.
At the same time, Italy is also one of the European countries with the highest proportion of organically farmed areas: as of 2023, organic farmland covered 17.4% of the total farmed area (SINAB, 2023), equivalent to 2.2 million ha. Italy is currently the 4th country in Europe in terms of extension of organic farmland.
The major organic productions in Italy are arable crops (such as cereals, dried pulses and protein crops), which represent 43% of the total organic production, followed by grassland (28%) and permanent crops (24%). Although vegetables represents only 2.5% of the total organic production, Italy is the leader in Europe for their production, ahead of organic farming powerhouses such as France and Spain (CREA, 2023; SINAB, 2023).
Another significant aspect of organic agriculture in Italy pertains to the demographic structure of the farming sector. In Italy, over 55% of all agricultural holdings are managed by farmers above 65 years of age, who farm less than 2 ha (Zagata & Sutherland, 2015). Zagata and Sutherland (2015) also demonstrated that in Europe the shortage of farm successors occurs mostly in countries with a high proportion of small farm holdings and with a high share of older farmers, and Italy is no exception, given that generational turnover is one of the main challenges of Italian agriculture.
Looking at the Italian organic farming sector, however, the high percentage of young farmers appears striking: the 2020 agricultural census shows that the share of young (under 40 years old) farm managers in Italian organic agriculture is more than double compared to the agricultural sector as a whole (20 percent vs. 9 percent), a difference that appears even stronger when considering organic livestock farming (24 percent) (CREA, 2023). The number of young people in the organic sector is especially high in the Southern Italian regions, which also have a higher share of organic farms overall.
In addition to young farmers, newcomers to the agricultural sector (people from non-farming backgrounds) are also proving crucial to advance sustainable farming practices and the revitalization of marginal rural areas. Over the last decade, interest around newcomer farmers in organic agriculture has been increasing, especially in relation to their contribution not only to the development of organic farming, but also to the revitalization of depopulating rural areas and communities (Monllor & Fuller, 2016; Zollet, 2021b).
Similarly to Japan, people relocating from urban to rural areas, often to start farming, have been increasing (Milone & Ventura, 2019; Wilbur, 2013). Newcomers are often part of phenomena of ‘return to the land’ or ‘return to the rural’ (akin to the Japanese concept of den’en kaiki 田園回帰), which frequently entails urban to rural migration, especially to marginal areas, and which reflects wider trends towards the re-valuation of the role of agriculture and rural lifestyles (Zollet, 2021a, 2021b). The terms ‘neo rurali’ (‘new rurals’) and ‘neo ruralismo’ (new ruralism) (Zanetti, 2013) have emerged in the Italian language literature, and refer to new modes of living and farming in the countryside, characterized by diversification, sustainability and synergies at territorial level. Interest in these topics has further increased after the COVID-19 pandemic, which has focused attention on issues such as urban-to-rural migration in the context of large-scale ‘system shocks’ and has heightened concerns over agri-food sustainability and resilience (Zollet et al., 2021).
Although Italy is one of the leaders in organic production, organic consumption still lags behind compared to the more affluent northern European countries. The percentage of organic retail sales is only 3.4%, much lower than Denmark, the country with the highest percentage of organic retail sales in the EU (13%) (IFOAM, 2023). Looking at the distribution channels for organic products, the Italian market is now dominated by large distributors (supermarkets and, more recently, e-commerce channels), which account for 58% of the market as of 2022. Specialized organic shops, once dominant, are now declining, and account for 23% of the market. Interestingly, however, other channels, such as farmers’ markets, on-farm sales, GAS (Solidarity Purchasing Groups), and Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) more broadly, account for 19% of the market, and have seen a 5% increase between 2021 and 2022 (CREA, 2022).
The rise of AFNs can be partly attributed to the characteristics of organic farming in Italy, where most organic farms are small or micro-farms (SINAB, 2020, 2023), which tend to be unable or unwilling to market their products through large scale conventional distributors and retailers. Most Italian organic producers therefore try to establish economic and relational networks with consumers within short food supply chains. This is demonstrated by the growth, in parallel to the growth of the organic sector, of various forms of local and alternative food networks (AFNs).
Italian AFNs are composed of a mix of innovative and traditional typologies: innovative practices include, for example, solidarity purchasing groups (GAS), farmers’ markets, and emerging experiences of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). These are accompanied by more ‘traditional’ and locally rooted practices that have seen a revival or a strengthening in recent years, such as on-farm sales and sales at local markets (Barbera & Dagnes, 2016). Another aspect that characterizes AFNs in Italy—as well as in other countries of the Mediterranean basin—and that distinguishes them from northern European countries and the US, is their strong territorial identity, both in terms of what is produced and of how such products are distributed and consumed (Dansero & Puttilli, 2014; Marino et al., 2018). It has also been argued that most AFNs in Italy are not a new trend, because they build upon traditional forms of organization of the food system (on-farm sales and local markets). Rather, their novelty consists of their capacity to restructure themselves as providers of products and services with attributes that are being increasingly sought after by citizen-consumers, such as locality, quality, sustainability, and reconnection (Dansero & Puttilli, 2014).
The growth of small farms in the organic sector (vis a vis the decrease in the number of small farms in the agricultural sector as a whole) therefore shows the potential of the adoption of organic farming, not only for increasing environmental sustainability, but also for the economic viability of small farms. These new ways of farming, despite going against the trend of scale enlargement, can be made economically viable by harnessing capacity for innovation, creativity and the ability to cooperate with others (Milone & Ventura, 2019).
Furthermore, increasing emphasis is being placed on forms of ‘new farming’, that include activities beyond agricultural production, for example socially-oriented activities such as care and educational farms. This trend is closely related to the ‘multifunctionality turn’ that has been amply discussed in European rural and agrarian literature (Wilson, 2008).
Social farming, for example, was recognized by law in 2015. The law promotes social farming as an aspect of the multifunctionality of agricultural enterprises, aimed at the development of social, health, educational and work-society integration, with the aim of facilitating access to essential services to local communities, and especially in rural or disadvantaged areas (Law 141, 18 August 2015).
The expansion of social and educational farms is connected to organic farming as well. The Charter of Principles of Social Agriculture, developed within the Italian National Social Agriculture Forum, states that social agriculture should follow a logic of environmental, social and economic sustainability, with particular attention to the conservation of natural resources for future generations. Many social farms therefore follow organic production methods (Dell’Olio et al., 2017).
As a member of the European Union, Italy has developed its agricultural policies within the framework of EU policy. Organic farming, in particular, sits at the intersection of many recent EU-level policies and strategies. These include the European Green Deal Strategy, which focuses on carbon neutrality and on bringing net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050; the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, which focuses on protecting the environment, increasing biodiversity and restoring degraded ecosystems; and, most importantly, the From Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy, which aims to make agri-food systems fair, healthy, environmentally-friendly, and resilient to crises (Schebesta & Candel, 2020). Current support for organic farming has increased following the setting of EU level targets that aim to increase the area under organic farming management in the EU to 25% by 2030. Four Italian regions (Tuscany, Marche, Basilicata and Calabria) already surpass the 25% mark (CREA, 2022).
Economic support for organic conversion, or for the maintenance of existing organic management systems, is offered through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), particularly with measures under the Rural Development Program. The connection between rural development and organic farming is also related to the fact that a large number of organic farms in Italy are located in marginal areas (Cardone & Pugliese, 2014; SINAB, 2020). In addition, financial support for research on organic agriculture (Programmi per la ricerca in agricoltura biologica) also exist (Cardone & Pugliese, 2014). Much research on organic farming, however, is also conducted by FIRAB (Fondazione Italiana per la Ricerca in Agricoltura Biologica e Biodinamica—Italian Foundation for Research in Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture) created in 2007 by several national-level organizations that operate in the organic sector (AIAB, UILA, Legambiente e Associazione Biodinamica Italiana) (FIRAB, 2018).
Finally, in March 2022 Law 23 concerning organic farming was approved by the Italian Parliament. The law describes organic farming as an activity of national interest to be safeguarded and increased in light of its economic, environmental and social value. The most important elements of the law include the definition of actions to promote and develop organic production, including bureaucratic simplification and financial support for research and initiatives for the development of organic production; and the promotion of organic consumption, especially in institutional settings through public procurement.
The law also established a National Organic Action Plan (Article 7), whose priorities are to encourage the organic conversion of conventional farms, especially low-income ones, and to support the establishment of new organic farms in marginal areas. The Action Plan also sets out to simplify and improve the organic certification system, currently seen as very burdensome, especially by small farms (Zollet, 2021b).
Another key aspect of the law is the definition and regulation of organic districts (Article 13), which until recently had not been recognized by law. Organic districts are understood as local production systems in areas with a marked agricultural vocation, in which the production and processing of organic products is significant, and/or where there is a strong connection between organic farming and other economic activities. The recognition of organic districts, which have existed in Italy since 2009, is a step towards understanding organic farming as a process of whole system redesign at farm, landscape and food system level, and of growing attention towards the territorial dimension of agri-food practices, with the aim of scaling successful initiatives and organic ‘clusters’ across larger territories (McGreevy et al., 2021; Zollet, 2022; Zollet & Maharjan, 2021).
The recognition of organic districts is also in line with the European Action Plan for Organic Farming, which highlights the importance of organic districts and other territorial models to achieve the goals of the Farm to Fork strategy. The new CAP also emphasizes collective approaches to the management of the agri-environment, the empowerment of rural communities, and the social functions of agriculture (Sturla et al., 2019).
Despite these advancements in the support for organic farming in Italy, and in EU more broadly, the greening of agricultural policies has to fight entrenched support for industrial farming and corporate agri-food actors. Furthermore, the effects of the conflict in Ukraine have weakened the stance towards agricultural sustainability due to growing concerns about the reliability of food supplies (Ben Hassen & El Bilali, 2022).
Despite these issues, the Italian and European experience offers useful insights for the development of organic farming in Japan. This is especially true after the Japanese government introduced in 2021 the Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems (MIDORI), which set several ambitious goals, including a 25% increase in organic farmland by 2050. The strategy, however, has also been criticized by members of the Japanese organic movement because it mainly focuses on technological innovation, and shows a limited understanding of the systemic and territorial aspects of organic farming. Moreover, it has little to no connection with multifunctionality-oriented rural and agricultural policies. At the same time, the strategy is an unprecedented opportunity to drive widespread conversion from conventional to organic agriculture.
To overcome the limitations of the strategy, a territorial approach similar to that of organic district would be beneficial, since farms are not isolated entities, and what surrounds a farm (from an environmental, cultural, and socio-economic perspective) influences its development model. Organic farmers can benefit from spatial and ideological proximity to each other, which drives farmer-to-farmer innovation and knowledge diffusion, the creation of partnerships and collaboration, and the development of producer-consumer interfaces (McGreevy et al., 2021). In Japan, the spatial clustering of organic and sustainable farms is already a reality (Zollet & Maharjan, 2021), especially in connection with the increase of newcomer farmers, who are a growing segment of the self-employed farming population, are significantly younger compared to agricultural successors, and show a high interest in organic farming (MAFF, 2019).
Policies in support of organic farming should therefore prioritize building relationships within the farming sector, particularly between older generation farmers (both organic and conventional) and newcomers. This should include support for the establishment of newcomers interested in organic farming, including by facilitating cooperation between newcomers (who need farmland and expertise) and local farmers lacking successors. Crucially, however, these matching programs should include support for organic conversion.
New policies should also build upon existing experiences in Japan with organic villages and former policy initiatives supporting organic farming at the territorial and community level, such as the 2008 Organic Farming Model Town Project.
To summarize, the following aspects appear crucial to advance organic farming in Japan:
1. Recognizing diversity within the farming sector and targeting measures to different types of rural stakeholders (from agricultural corporations to community farming enterprises and full-time farmers, but also including part-time farmers, and so-called lifestyle farmers (han-nou han-x).
2. Leveraging features typical of Japanese rural communities within the framework of organic conversion, such as the tradition of cooperation within farming villages. Community farming enterprises, for example, could be an opportunity for large scale conversion.
3. Going beyond fixed models of organic farming within the organic sector itself, giving space for a diversity of models and styles.
4. Creating alliances between agriculture and other sectors (e.g. sustainable tourism, care, education, sustainable energy production).
5. supporting urban-rural connections, both in the form of more localized agri-food systems but also by promoting sustainable rural living in connection with rural in-migration policies (Zollet, 2023).
To conclude, the successful expansion of organic farming will require moving away from seeing organic conversion chiefly as a technology-based individual process, and embracing the idea of territorially based, integrated sustainability transitions. Furthermore, organic farming should also be promoted as an instrument for local development and to attract new and/or younger people into the agricultural sector and rural areas.
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 21K20068.
