IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2016i1p18-d86016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Concepts and Strategies of Organic Plant Breeding in Light of Novel Breeding Techniques

Author

Listed:
  • Edwin Nuijten

    (Louis Bolk Institute, Hoofdstraat 24, 3972 LA Driebergen, The Netherlands)

  • Monika M. Messmer

    (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Department of Crop Sciences, Ackerstrasse 113, CH-5070 Frick, Switzerland)

  • Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren

    (Louis Bolk Institute, Hoofdstraat 24, 3972 LA Driebergen, The Netherlands
    Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, P.O. Box 386, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the development of a set of guiding principles for the evaluation of breeding techniques by the organic sector over time. The worldwide standards of organic agriculture (OA) do not allow genetic engineering (GE) or any products derived from genetic engineering. The standards in OA are an expression of the underlying principles of health, ecology, fairness and care. The derived norms are process and not product oriented. As breeding is considered part of the process in agriculture, GE is not a neutral tool for the organic sector. The incompatibility between OA and GE is analyzed, including the “novel breeding techniques”. Instead, alternative breeding approaches are pursued based on the norms and values of organic agriculture not only on the technical level but also on the social and organizational level by including other value chain players and consumers. The status and future perspectives of the alternative directions for organic breeding are described and discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Edwin Nuijten & Monika M. Messmer & Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren, 2016. "Concepts and Strategies of Organic Plant Breeding in Light of Novel Breeding Techniques," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2016:i:1:p:18-:d:86016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/1/18/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/1/18/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vanloqueren, Gaëtan & Baret, Philippe V., 2009. "How agricultural research systems shape a technological regime that develops genetic engineering but locks out agroecological innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 971-983, July.
    2. Simon Batterbury, 1996. "Planners or performers? Reflections on indigenous dryland farming in northern Burkina Faso," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 13(3), pages 12-22, June.
    3. de Ponti, Tomek & Rijk, Bert & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2012. "The crop yield gap between organic and conventional agriculture," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-9.
    4. Adrienne C. Shelton & William F. Tracy, 2015. "Recurrent Selection and Participatory Plant Breeding for Improvement of Two Organic Open-Pollinated Sweet Corn ( Zea mays L.) Populations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-14, April.
    5. Vanloqueren, Gaëtan & Baret, Philippe V., 2008. "Why are ecological, low-input, multi-resistant wheat cultivars slow to develop commercially? A Belgian agricultural 'lock-in' case study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 436-446, June.
    6. Verena Seufert & Navin Ramankutty & Jonathan A. Foley, 2012. "Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture," Nature, Nature, vol. 485(7397), pages 229-232, May.
    7. Claire H. Luby & Alexandra H. Lyon & Adrienne C. Shelton, 2013. "A New Generation of Plant Breeders Discovers Fertile Ground in Organic Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(6), pages 1-5, June.
    8. Coomes, Oliver T. & McGuire, Shawn J. & Garine, Eric & Caillon, Sophie & McKey, Doyle & Demeulenaere, Elise & Jarvis, Devra & Aistara, Guntra & Barnaud, Adeline & Clouvel, Pascal & Emperaire, Laure & , 2015. "Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 41-50.
    9. Pretty, Jules N., 1995. "Participatory learning for sustainable agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 1247-1263, August.
    10. Salvatore Ceccarelli, 2014. "GM Crops, Organic Agriculture and Breeding for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(7), pages 1-14, July.
    11. Jaqueline Garcia-Yi, 2014. "Market-Based Instruments for the Conservation of Underutilized Crops: In-Store Experimental Auction of Native Chili Products in Bolivia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-19, November.
    12. Geels, Frank W. & Schot, Johan, 2007. "Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 399-417, April.
    13. Thomas F. Döring & Samuel Knapp & Geza Kovacs & Kevin Murphy & Martin S. Wolfe, 2011. "Evolutionary Plant Breeding in Cereals—Into a New Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(10), pages 1-28, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Estela Gimenez & Maria Salinas & Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro, 2018. "Worldwide Research on Plant Defense against Biotic Stresses as Improvement for Sustainable Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Agnieszka Szparaga & Maciej Kuboń & Sławomir Kocira & Ewa Czerwińska & Anna Pawłowska & Patryk Hara & Zbigniew Kobus & Dariusz Kwaśniewski, 2019. "Towards Sustainable Agriculture—Agronomic and Economic Effects of Biostimulant Use in Common Bean Cultivation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Gilles Grolleau & Alain Marciano & Naoufel Mzoughi, 2021. "Scandals : a ‘reset button’ to drive change?," Post-Print hal-02921614, HAL.
    4. Francesco Solfanelli & Emel Ozturk & Emilia Cubero Dudinskaya & Serena Mandolesi & Stefano Orsini & Monika Messmer & Simona Naspetti & Freya Schaefer & Eva Winter & Raffaele Zanoli, 2022. "Estimating Supply and Demand of Organic Seeds in Europe Using Survey Data and MI Techniques," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-23, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Desquilbet, Marion & Dorin, Bruno & Couvet, Denis, 2013. "Land sharing vs. land sparing for biodiversity: How agricultural markets make the difference," TSE Working Papers 13-435, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Oct 2015.
    2. Marion Desquilbet & Bruno Dorin & Denis Couvet, 2016. "Land Sharing vs Land Sparing to Conserve Biodiversity: How Agricultural Markets Make the Difference [land-sharing/land-sparing, comment les marchés font la différence]," Post-Print hal-03948463, HAL.
    3. Lauren Brzozowski & Michael Mazourek, 2018. "A Sustainable Agricultural Future Relies on the Transition to Organic Agroecological Pest Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-25, June.
    4. Anglade, J. & Billen, G. & Garnier, J. & Makridis, T. & Puech, T. & Tittel, C., 2015. "Nitrogen soil surface balance of organic vs conventional cash crop farming in the Seine watershed," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 82-92.
    5. Cristian Timmermann & Georges Félix, 2015. "Agroecology as a vehicle for contributive justice," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(3), pages 523-538, September.
    6. Véronique De Herde & Kevin Maréchal & Philippe V. Baret, 2019. "Lock-ins and Agency: Towards an Embedded Approach of Individual Pathways in the Walloon Dairy Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-19, August.
    7. Fern Wickson & Rosa Binimelis & Amaranta Herrero, 2016. "Should Organic Agriculture Maintain Its Opposition to GM? New Techniques Writing the Same Old Story," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Salvatore Ceccarelli, 2014. "GM Crops, Organic Agriculture and Breeding for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(7), pages 1-14, July.
    9. Dedeurwaerdere, Tom & Hannachi, Mourad, 2019. "Socio-economic drivers of coexistence of landraces and modern crop varieties in agro-biodiversity rich Yunnan rice fields," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 177-188.
    10. Atanu Mukherjee & Emmanuel C. Omondi & Paul R. Hepperly & Rita Seidel & Wade P. Heller, 2020. "Impacts of Organic and Conventional Management on the Nutritional Level of Vegetables," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-25, October.
    11. Ciarli, Tommaso & Ràfols, Ismael, 2019. "The relation between research priorities and societal demands: The case of rice," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 949-967.
    12. Jacquet, Florence & Butault, Jean-Pierre & Guichard, Laurence, 2011. "An economic analysis of the possibility of reducing pesticides in French field crops," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1638-1648, July.
    13. Janet MacFall & Joanna Lelekacs & Todd LeVasseur & Steve Moore & Jennifer Walker, 2015. "Toward resilient food systems through increased agricultural diversity and local sourcing in the Carolinas," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(4), pages 608-622, December.
    14. Nesar Ahmed & Shirley Thompson & Giovanni M. Turchini, 2020. "Organic aquaculture productivity, environmental sustainability, and food security: insights from organic agriculture," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(6), pages 1253-1267, December.
    15. Bourceret, Amélie & Accatino, Francesco & Robert, Corinne, 2024. "A modeling framework of a territorial socio-ecosystem to study the trajectories of change in agricultural phytosanitary practices," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 494(C).
    16. SIngh Verma, Juhee & Sharma, Pritee, 2019. "Potential of Organic Farming to Mitigate Climate Change and Increase Small Farmers’ Welfare," MPRA Paper 99994, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Magrini, Marie-Benoit & Anton, Marc & Cholez, Célia & Corre-Hellou, Guenaelle & Duc, Gérard & Jeuffroy, Marie-Hélène & Meynard, Jean-Marc & Pelzer, Elise & Voisin, Anne-Sophie & Walrand, Stéphane, 2016. "Why are grain-legumes rarely present in cropping systems despite their environmental and nutritional benefits? Analyzing lock-in in the French agrifood system," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 152-162.
    18. de la Cruz, Vera Ysabel V. & Tantriani, & Cheng, Weiguo & Tawaraya, Keitaro, 2023. "Yield gap between organic and conventional farming systems across climate types and sub-types: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    19. Bang, Rasmus & Hansen, Bjørn Gunnar & Guajardo, Mario & Sommerseth, Jon Kristian & Flaten, Ola & Asheim, Leif Jarle, 2024. "Conventional or organic cattle farming? Trade-offs between crop yield, livestock capacity, organic premiums, and government payments," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    20. Natalia Brzezina & Birgit Kopainsky & Erik Mathijs, 2016. "Can Organic Farming Reduce Vulnerabilities and Enhance the Resilience of the European Food System? A Critical Assessment Using System Dynamics Structural Thinking Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-32, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2016:i:1:p:18-:d:86016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.