SAFO News, May 2005

Presentations from the 4th SAFO workshop on the website

The presentations from the 4th workshop in Frick have been uploaded to the workshop homepage.

Summary of the second annual report

We have produced a summary of the second annual report from the SAFO-project, in which our activities over the last year are described. This is to be found on this homepage together with a summary of the first annual report, in connection with the work package on coordination.

The 5th SAFO workshop will be held in collaboration with the joint conference on organic farming in May-June 2006

The 5th SAFO workshop was originally scheduled to be held in November 2005, but we are at the moment applying for a 6 month extension of the SAFO project in order to be able to catch the opportunity to increase and improve our network and communicate with colleagues, scientists, stakeholders and policy makers working with organic farming.

At our meeting for SAFO project participants in relation to the 4th SAFO workshop in Frick, we decided to participate in this joint event, provided that the organising committee of the joint organic conference would agree to give the SAFO project much better recognition in the organisation of the scientific sessions of the workshop. The other EU-projects were positive to this suggestion, and the first planning meeting will be held in mid-June 2005 in Sweden.

By following this link, you will find a press release presenting of the idea behind the joint conference.

A SAFO workshop will be held on the 29th May, and the Steering Committee will decide whether we want to have work meetings on the 1st June, or maybe on the 28th June.

Discussion forum on strategies for health planning in organic herds

At the fourth SAFO workshop in March 2005, one of the discussion groups emphasised the need for improving strategies for health planning in organic animal husbandry.

Previously, we held a meeting regarding research collaboration in connection to the 3rd workshop, and here it was decided to prepare research proposals on common development of health planning in organic herds, based on knowledge and experience exchange, and addressing the diversity between herds in different countries.

At the 4th workshop we decided that the first step is to make an open discussion forum in order to enable a presentation of strategies from various countries and stimulate discussion about these strategies. We want to create basis for networking and inspiration among people working within the area.

If you have health planning strategies, manuals, guidelines, templates or publications, which you want to present or discuss, please use this opportunity and go to SAFO part of www.organicforum.org. Here you can see what your colleagues have developed and / or have experience with regarding health planning.

Likewise, you have the opportunity to tell about your work to others with access to the discussion forum. Please be aware that it is not possible to upload papers directly from the discussion forum, but you can insert links to papers or documents on your homepage or anywhere else on the Internet.

If the relevant papers about health planning in organic agriculture are not on the Internet already, we will be happy to help. Please send the paper to the SAFO webmaster – we will upload the paper and send you a hyperlink, which can be used at the discussion forum.

Presentation at the LIGA conference

On the 60th Homoeopathic World Medical Congress 2005, Mette Vaarst gave a lecture on "Protecting the food chain: food safety, animal and human health and the use of homoeopathy in farm animals". The presentation as well as the paper (will be published by the International Association for Veterinary Homoeopathy) is uploaded to the SAFO library.