Organic scalability is under discussion in the scientific and political arena. Many countries have set goals for the development of organic food and farming. Yet, some studies have already reported some limitations to its development, e.g. economic costs (Feuerbacher et al., 2018) or yield gaps (Barbieri et al., 2017). What can be the bottlenecks and drivers for a sustainable development of organic farming and food (OFF)? 

To deepen this question, the transversal program METABIO of INRAE organised a workshop at the OWC Congress with the aim to bring together a diversity of stakeholders from around the world and to share our representations of the limitations and opportunities for a massive development of organic food and farming.

Aims and context

The aim of this workshop were

• To broaden the brainstorming on an international and multi-actor scale
• To feed organic research agendas
• To meet again in 3 years for the next OWC congress and see how things have evolved

The workshop

The workshop was attended by 90 participants from 22 countries around the world.

• At first we had an historical perspective by Vijai Kumar Thallam, Vice-president of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) and General Secretary, Andhra Pradesh government.

• Then the participants were distributed in small groups to discuss about the question "What would be the levers to boost organic food and farming (OFF) beyond 50% of market shares IN YOUR REGION ?". They were invited to express their ideas, summarized in a list, and to collectively discuss their regional specificities.
• Back in plenary, Markus Arbenz, New Business, owner and project director, Easy-Cert and Organics4Development shared some thoughts on organic scalability and issues for the future. 

• To conclude, the levers were summarised in a "wordcloud" (see below).