As organic production grows in Europe, the sector’s focus is on competitiveness and sustainability. Another compelling characteristic of organic farming is its natural tendency towards social inclusion. This facet is to be supported and enhanced by the renewed European Union policy mix and social inclusion has been made one of the six rural development priorities for the 2014-2020 programming period.

Organic farming in Europe continues to be a real success story. More and more citizens  recognise the EU organic leaf logo on organic products and the underlying values associated with this kind of resource efficient agriculture, such as safeguarding environmental resources and biodiversity, local and healthy food, more attention to animal welfare. This popular interest in organic farming was confirmed by a recent public consultation on the review of the EU policy framework for the organic production sector, held between January and April 2013, which received a massive 45 000 replies, 96% of which were from ordinary citizens.