Earth Equity News

Poland's Organic Farms Prove to be Fruitful Ventures. By Marynia Kruk, CSMonitor, October 8, 2008. "The number of organic farms in Poland has burgeoned during the past 12 years, from 300 in 1996 to some 13,500 today, according to EkoConnect, a German nonprofit think tank that studies organic agriculture. EkoConnect defines organic farming broadly as farming that works with nature instead of against it. Farming has always been a small-scale enterprise in Poland, the only former Soviet satellite country to resist agricultural collectivization under communism... 'The structure of agriculture in Poland, where the average size of a farm is about 7-hectares [17 acres], is well-suited to organic farming,' says Bernhard Jansen, who heads EkoConnect. Small-scale farmers are less likely to have ever used costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides, or to have given their livestock hormone-infused feed, a plus for farmers who wish to convert their farms."