Shaping Transformation. Stronger. Together.: “My Ecological Superpower”

Ms Mapusua, you have been active in a variety of roles in the organic movement for many years – now on the other side of the world, in Fiji, known in this country only as a holiday paradise. Are organics considered a concept there?

Yes, they are a matter of growing interest – both in the expansion of organically farmed areas and among consumers. Interestingly, many farmers throughout the Pacific region are still largely farming for their own use or as semi-subsistence farmers, using traditional methods and few chemicals. Around 15 years ago, when the Pacific islands began talking about organic farming, many farmers’ response was, “Oh, we’re organic!”. And to a certain degree they’re right. But the fact is that it’s not quite as true as people think, because pesticide use has grown over time, especially for commercial crops.

That’s why organisations like IFOAM – Organics International, which work with local NGOs, had to help farmers develop an understanding of what organic farming really means, and how it works. What we’ve seen over the past 10 years is a serious desire among many of them to learn how to do business in an ecologically sound way. That means there’s a steadily growing recognition of the differences between natural, traditional production systems and fully organic ones that can meet certification requirements.

Governments as well have taken a growing interest in transitioning to organic agriculture. For instance, every other year there’s a meeting of the region’s ministers of agriculture and forestry. In 2006 I had the privilege of attending that meeting. At that point only one of the 22 Pacific countries even mentioned organic farming. But in 2018, three-quarters of the countries were prioritising organic farming in their agricultural strategies. That’s an immense step. We have organic regulations that are already in force or under development, with more to come. On top of that, the public sector has a lot of interest in supporting organics.

What are the reasons for the change?

On the consumer end, there’s a growing awareness and understanding of what “organic” really means, and what its advantages are. The changeover is also related to the massive health problems we have throughout the Pacific region. We have terrible health problems like heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Samoa has a diabetes rate of 40%; here in Fiji we have a diabetes-related amputation every 11 hours, the statistics say. And that’s for a population of only 800,000! People and governments are realising more and more that eating good, healthy, clean, local foods makes a big difference.

An unhealthy lifestyle, with the rising consumption of the “Big 3” – wheat, corn and sugar – came about with colonialism. It led people to turn away from their traditional diet, which is much healthier, based on root plants like manioc, taro and sweet potatoes, in combination with coconut products and fish. There’s now also a discussion of the adverse impact of pesticides. This slowly growing awareness is also rising in parallel with a demand for locally grown organic foods. The local NGO sector is very active in these matters. But the ministries as well are hard at work on getting the health crisis in hand. Most of them view healthy organic foods as part of the solution.

We’re approaching the topic from all sides. As I see it, we need to make the connection between agricultural practices and health even clearer, along with the opportunities to create new markets for local organic foods, and to advance both of these further. In that connection, we can really be glad that our traditions are a very good match with the principles of the organic movement. Thanks to the special situation in the Pacific, the standards also inherently reflect our culture and traditions, along with IFOAM – Organics International’s four principles – health, ecology, fairness and care.

You’ve already mentioned that organic farming offers important solutions for many of our era’s urgent problems. What are the specific ways in which your work and your network can contribute?

Much of our work is about establishing access not just to markets, but to social institutions and services for farming families. We have large parts of the whole region where electric power is limited or the infrastructure is poor, and even access to education is hampered by distance, poor transportation connections, and so on. Fiji has 300 islands, about 100 of which are populated – how can we offer services for everyone there? The key term that applies here is “Poverty of Opportunities”. That’s related to our remote location, but also to our very limited options for generating cash income.

You know, nobody needs to starve here, but some of our island nations are categorised as “underdeveloped” by the United Nations. We have our challenges. But we’re looking for ways in which the opportunities offered by organic farming can help overcome these problems. That includes finding ways – through policies, initiatives, personal responsibility and commitment – to support and encourage agricultural traditions and to develop them further for the health of everyone. The current challenges may remind people of how important good food and food security are.

Just as the COVID pandemic was starting, a cyclone caused severe damage to Vanuatu Island. Interestingly, the lockdown because of COVID forced Vanuatu to rely on its internal resources, and in rebuilding it applied the traditional systems of food production, most of which are organic. The Vanuatu government and the community did an amazing thing – they used local practices to ensure an emergency food supply, and they did it partly by rebuilding the supply of the most important traditional crops. To me, that shows what we can do, and that we have a high level of resilience based on local solutions. We don’t always need to wait for help from outside. I hope this new self-confidence will also help crank up organic food production. Sometimes solutions can be very simple.

The global organic movement has long been working on transforming the existing agricultural system and changing diets. What can we in the western economies learn from models in your latitudes?

I think we have a lot of knowledge to share. Our traditional farming system is based on agroforestry. It’s very resilient, very diverse, and a real treasury of profound knowledge about the value and even the healing powers of plants and various traditional foods. Part of that has been lost, but I’m sure there’s a real chance to revive some of it. There’s one more thing I think is wonderful – our concept of land access.

There’s no ownership in the European sense, instead it’s more of a guardianship or trusteeship for the land. A large family is the guardian of a plot of land, and in traditional ownership situations land can’t be bought or sold. That brings about a recognition of the significance and value of land, because we’re responsible for the land for generation after generation. Another traditional aspect is the general sense of the great value of forests.

When we talk about sustainable or climate-intelligent agriculture, we can find it here in our traditional agroforestry systems. Another very interesting aspect is the system of “taboo” areas that must be left untouched for a certain amount of time so they can regenerate – and that applies to both the land and the sea. Over the past 15 years, the organisations I’ve worked with have put a very strong emphasis on communally managed areas, and I’m very pleased that we have these structures in parallel with democratic policies.

But unfortunately we also have big problems with plastic on our coasts, and also of course with climate change. Even though we’re the smallest CO₂ emitters in the world, we’ll be the first to go under as sea level rises – but we’re working hard to make our food and agricultural systems resilient, so we can stay on our islands. There’s a slogan: “We’re not drowning – we’re fighting!”

Our governments are working successfully on solving the plastics problem by banning the importation and use of plastic bags, drinking straws and Styrofoam containers on some islands, but our beaches still have a lot of plastic waste from all over the world. And we have the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and microplastics are turning up in our fish, which is a matter of great concern.

As a worldwide umbrella organisation, IFOAM – Organics International lights the way for many farmers all around the world. Since you operate internationally, you can compare conditions in the Pacific region with other, larger countries. How can we achieve a global transformation towards a more sustainable, more ecologically viable world?

At IFOAM – Organics International, with our members on every continent, we really do play an important role in setting basic global standards for organic farming, developing them further to fit local needs, and establishing contacts with other like-minded organisations. I’m thinking of organisations with similar goals in the NGO sector, but also in scientific and technical fields. Together we can establish ecologically sound practices as part of the solution for future organic agricultural development.

The Pacific region has a very strong message to convey in this regard: organic agriculture is an instrument that can aid our environment, our economies, our employment and our health. It presents organic farming really as a solution for many of the challenges we face. That way, all representatives of interests within the worldwide sustainability network can work towards a multi-track approach to these major topics, and achieve major progress.