|
Report from the Bichel Committee - Organic Scenarios for Denmark 2. Introduction
This work is part of the Bichel Committee’s mandate In a letter dated 26 February 1998 to Svend Bichel, the Minister of Environment and
Energy requested the committee appointed to assess the overall consequences of phasing out
the use of pesticides (the Bichel Committee) to incorporate a project in its work with a
view to an assessment of the overall consequences of a total restructuring of the
agricultural sector for organic production. The reason for this was that in association
with the Finance Act for 1998, the Government, the Socialist People's Party and the Red
Green Alliance (Denmark) agreed to reinforce efforts for protecting the aquatic
environment and for promoting restructuring for organic production. In that connection, a
sum of DKK 2 million was set aside for developing scenarios for assessing the overall
consequences of a total organic restructuring of agriculture. 2.1 Organisation of the workAn interdisciplinary group was appointed To ensure coherence and an integrated approach in the work on the organic scenarios, it was found that a slightly different form of cooperation was needed between the specialist sub-committees than in the work on phasing out the use of pesticides. The coordination group under the Bichel Committee, which is composed of the chairmen of the main committee and the sub-committees, therefore appointed an interdisciplinary group with one participant from the Sub-committee on Legislation and two from each of the other sub-committees. Scientific responsibility The group’s task was to prepare a proposal describing the work needed and subsequently to follow up on its implementation and present a combined report. The work was based on the existing structure of the Bichel Committee. The scientific responsibility for the various chapters in the report lay with the respective sub-committees. The Sub-committee on Agriculture was thus responsible for chapter 5 (Agricultural consequences), the Sub-committee on Environment and Health for chapter 6 (Consequences for environment and health), the Sub-committee on Production, Economy and Employment for chapter 7 (Consequences for production, economics and employment) and the Sub-committee on Legislation for chapter 8 (Legal aspects). Responsibility for the remaining chapters lay with the coordination group. The main committee and sub-committees were kept informed during the work to enable decisions to be taken concerning any deviations from the original plan. This report was discussed at the sub-committees’ meetings in January and February 1999 with a view to scientific assessment and approval of the results within the respective committees’ areas. The interdisciplinary group comprised: Johannes Nebel, farmer, Sub-committee on Agriculture The group was linked to the expert environment under the Danish Research Center for Organic Farming, in which connection Chief Scientist Erik Steen Kristensen was attached to the Secretariat for the Pesticide Committee to manage the work of the group. Assistant Research Scientist Hugo Fjelsted Alrøe, Research Center for Organic Farming, carried out a large part of the compilation of this report.
|