SUMMARY

The European directive concerning ecological products (n 8347/2007) considers that the ecological production is a general system of agricultural management and food production that combines the best environmental practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources, rigorous rules animal well being and a production adapted to the preferences of particular consumers obtained from natural products and processes. It is evident that the goal is not so much to feed mankind as to satisfy a particular sector of consumers. As it proponents admit, this agricultural approach surges as an ideological movement of reaction against what it considers excesses and problems derived from intensification and industrialization of agrarian productions, whose effects are negative for our health, environment and society.

Agricultural land has become a strategic factor that for some time now has attracted the attention of important financial speculators and, more recently, of countries like China, Korea, Saudi Arabia or even South Africa, which have been buying or renting millions of hectares, especially in Africa. Additionally, a rapid increment of agricultural prices has occurred, creating a food crisis, and it seems that they will never come down again to the previous levels. As a consequence, the number of people that do not receive enough food has increased above the level of 1 billion people. It is not possible that an agricultural system that requires 30-50 % more soil to produce the same amount of food and that demands higher prices than its alternatives could have a role to play in relation to the food challenges of the whole mankind.

The terms sustainable agriculture, conservation agricultures or precission agriculture, which are partially redundant, allude to a practice that must satisfy present day demands without jeopardizing the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own needs, and must conserve soil, water, biodiversity and atmosphere, without renouncing to high yields and the use of synthetic agrochemicals.

Patrick Hoden, vice-president of the Brittish Association, has bluntly declared that “the tools of modern science are not sufficiently developed to measure the virtues of Ecological Agriculture”. This assertion is totally without merit. This type of food is not more tasty. When the same product, obtained by different systems, is compared in a blind taste panel, the ecological production system does not come out the winner. Neither are ecological products more nutitious and healthy, as can be deduced firm an extensive review of the scientific literature between January 1958 and February 2008, carried out for Food Standards Office of the UK. A group of six experts in Nutrition (A.D. Dangour et al. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition  90:680-685, 2009) has concluded that there is no difference concerning the nutritive value of ecological products with respect to their alternatives. Similarly, as can be ascertained in the periodic food alarm bulletins, ecological products do not offer a greater alimentary safety.

Finally, Ecological Agriculture is not always more friendly to the environment than its alternatives. In general, it would invade more natural habitat per metric ton of food produced, as its yields are lower, and, in contrast, it could be less aggressive in terms of agrochemicals leaked to the environment, although this is not always the case.