• The initiative of a European Day of Organic Production aims to promote organic farming and the consumption of organic products.
• The European Union's objective is to reach 25 per cent of organic farmland by 2030, making food systems more sustainable.
• In Italy, 64 euros a year are spent per capita on organic products, compared to a European average of 84 euros.
• To discover organic farming up close, organic sector associations are proposing a number of events.

On 23 September, the European Day of Organic Production is celebrated: the initiative, promoted by Ifoam Oe, was launched in 2021 by the European Parliament, Council and Commission to promote the key role of organic farming in the transition towards sustainable food systems and to assess progress towards achieving the target of 25 per cent of organic farmland in Europe by 2030.

European Day of Organic Production: when and why

The date of the organic day was not chosen at random: 23 September is also the autumn equinox, the moment when day and night are of equal length, symbolising the balance between nature and agriculture. "Today we celebrate organic production, a sustainable type of farming in which food production is carried out in harmony with nature, biodiversity and animal welfare," Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture, had declared at the ceremony marking the signing and launch of the initiative, stressing the opportunity this day offered to raise awareness of organic production and consumption, in order to contribute to the realisation of the "Farm to Fork" and "Biodiversity" strategies of the European Green Deal, which provide for, among other things, a 20 per cent reduction in the use of fertilisers and a 50 per cent reduction in the use of pesticides.

Organic farming by the numbers in Europe

According to 2022 Nomisma-Ismea data, in the European Union organic farmland amounts to 14.9 million hectares, representing 9.2 per cent of total agricultural land. Organic operators number 349,499, while organic sales amount to 44.4 million euros. With 2.2 million hectares of organic land, Italy boasts the highest percentage of organic farmland in Europe as a share of the total (17.4 per cent), while there are 86,144 organic operators, with a domestic market value of 5 million euros.

The country that spends the most on organic is Switzerland, at 418 euros per capita per year, equal to 10 per cent of total spending, followed by Denmark, at 384 euros, equal to 12 per cent of total spending. Italians spend an average of 64 euros on organic purchases (compared to a European average of 84 euros), equal to 4 per cent of total food spending.

Organic Day and Fridays for Future, a single call to protect the environment

FederBio and the Municipality of Bologna, in collaboration with AssoBio, national and local institutions, Nomisma and BolognaFiere, are celebrating the Organic Day with an event as part of the Being Organic in Eu project: it is an opportunity to take stock of the agroecological transition, the actions to be taken to stimulate the sector and to raise awareness of more mindful and sustainable food choices, but also a response to the call of Fridays For Future which, with the global climate mobilisation called for 23 September, demanded that the climate crisis be central to the upcoming political deadlines and a priority in public debate.

"The European Day of Organic Farming is an important moment to celebrate a sector that in 30 years has gone from a niche element to a driving force for the revival of the entire agri-food sector, at the heart of European green policies," declared Maria Grazia Mammuccini, president of Federbio. "The latest catastrophes that have struck our country in recent days remind us that we have no more time. We need the adoption of a new paradigm of agri-food production based on the agroecological transition, one that contributes to effectively countering climate drift while protecting biodiversity, the environment and soil fertility. We therefore join the call of the Fridays for Future young people and the ecologists, who are asking farmers to join their fight for the climate. Organic farming represents a concrete response to addressing future challenges because it ensures resilience and sustainability, contributing to mitigating climate change. But that is not all — land cultivated organically tends to retain greater quantities of water, becoming a form of protection in the event of drought and flooding."

Discovering organic farming up close with the Organic Week and the Organic Festival

"On this important Day we celebrate organic Italy: a country of good producers (with around 17 per cent of its land, compared to the EU average which stands at 9 per cent), skilled exporters (+16 per cent), joint world leaders alongside the United States, but we can improve in terms of consumption, which has grown by just +5 per cent, with a good boost from the out-of-home sector," stressed the president of Assobio, Roberto Zanoni. "Training, communication and research will be at the heart of our actions to foster the sector's development. It is on this very occasion that we are pleased to launch the Organic Week, which will take place in spring and will involve all large retail and specialist chains, together with the restaurant industry. In keeping with this, we hope that a traceability platform validated by the Ministry of Agricultural Policy will be created as soon as possible, so as to make the journey of organic products from field to table transparent, even for consumers. Emergencies and war cannot be a pretext for making sensational steps backwards and moving away from the virtuous path we have built so far."

On the occasion of Organic Day, Federbio is also launching the fifth edition of the Festa del Bio, a road show in three stages to bring people closer to organic farming through talk shows, workshops, show cooking, tastings and workshops for children. The first stage takes place on 3 December 2022 in Bologna, at Palazzo Re Enzo, followed, in the early months of 2023, by the second and third stages in Rome and Milan respectively.