You're listening to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on new European rules on organic farming.

People today want healthier food on their plates and the market for organic products is growing by the day.

However, EU rules had not kept in touch with such market expansion. But this is about

to change. After three years of intense negotiations, EU institutions could soon give the green light

to new rules on organic farming and labelling of organic products. So listen carefully.

Organic. It's a common health food buzzword, but what does it mean?

Well, organic production is a farm management and food production system that combines the preservation of the environment and natural resources, a high level of biodiversity and

high animal welfare standards. So it's about producing food with as little impact in the environment as possible, right?

Right. That's why chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and GMOs are banned

and antibiotics severely restricted. To preserve the soil and its nutrients,

organic crops follow a strict rotation scheme.

And every on-site resource is put to good use, such as manure for fertilizers or feed produced

in the farm. In organic farms, livestock is also raised free range and fed with organic feed.

Indeed, and the thing is that demand for organic food is driving more and more farmers into

greener practices.

By 2015, there were over 306,000 organic operators, that is to say, producers, processors and

importers registered in the EU.

Organic farmland has more than doubled in the last decade, and each year half a million

new hectares of land are converted to organic production, but it's still not enough.

Organic land still represents only 6% of the total EU agricultural area, clearly not enough to make the increasing demand for greener food,

which is leading to increased imports.

So to increase production and remove some of the regulatory barriers that still prevents small-scale

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