03.02.2017 / Bulgarian farmers train their French counterparts in organic farming

Greenpeace has launched, together with 16 farmers from all over Europe, a program for the exchange of knowledge on organic farming. As part of the initiative, four foreign farmers will visit the holdings of producers from Bulgaria that specializes in organic farming. The aim is for participants to gain first-hand experience of sustainable farming methods ranging from the production of their own animal feed to finding synthetic chemical pesticide free alternatives to growing different crops.
Greenpeace calls on governments in the European Union to provide farmers with independent advice on organic farming, and to support the development and use of environmentally friendly alternatives.
“Organic farmers are the heroes of our food system. They are modern innovators and grow our food while respecting nature and biodiversity, protecting soil, water and the climate. The Farmers Exchange Program is an initiative developed by farmers for farmers. Each eco-farmer contributes to the transformation of the current inactive industrial farming system” – The Project manager at Greenpeace’s office in France said.
Host farms are located in Belgium, Bulgaria and France and represent a range of different sectors. The 16 farmers participating in the program are from Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, France, Italy and Slovakia. Greenpeace also organizes a series of visits and seminars across Europe where environmental and conventional farmers have the opportunity to share experiences and ideas and learn about alternative solutions. Over 400 participants participated in these events in 2016. In addition, Greenpeace also launched wwww.farmers2farmers.org, an online platform for promoting and sharing green farming practices practiced by farmers across Europe. The platform presents real-world experience and advice from these farmers and promotes knowledge sharing within a broad and diverse farming community.
Linking conventional farmers to their environmental counterparts ensures that knowledge of alternatives is becoming widespread. This is a vital step to accelerate the process of increasing eco-agriculture. Currently, only about 5% of global R&D funds go to organic farming and most of the rest of this money supports and promotes industrial farming methods.
“Information on how to deal with pests and diseases is often geared towards the interests of industrial feed, pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers. This makes farmers even more dependent on the products these companies produce. Policymakers need to increase support and subsidies for green alternatives. It is only through eco-agriculture that we can guarantee our farming communities a stable income and a better long-term life”, concluded the Project manager at Greenpeace’s office in France.