The Policy on the Use of Environmentally Friendly Approaches in Agriculture in 2010-2020 Period: Comparative Study of Russia and Canada

Today the production of organic products is growing incrementally all around the world since more and more countries are paying attention to the quality of life and health of population. Russia has large opportunities regarding sustainable and organic agriculture thanks to the abundance of land that has not been treated with agrochemicals and to the huge incentive created in 2014 after the political crisis in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia which led to an imposition of sanctions on Russia and foodstuff embargo. Since the 2010 Russian government has been designing the legislation on organic farming in Russia and in 2018 the bill “On organic products” was adopted. Many farmers and food industry representatives have claimed the contradictoriness of the imposed certification of organic products due to unpreparedness of government bodies to conduct this certification. This paper is an analysis of the existing Russian legislation on organic farming through comparing it with the one of Canada as a country with similar geographical and climatic conditions, which is essential for agriculture. The author is questioning how the policies on organic farming affected farmers and market of products grown within this approach in Russia and Canada and which country performed more effective. In order to answer this question several interviews with Russian organic farmers and the poll on consumers’ attitude towards organic goods were done. It was found that organic farmers in Russia face such problems as high cost of certification which can be unaffordable for small farms and lack of state support for them. It was shown that the improvement and growth of organic market in Russia is relevant, people know what these products are and are ready to purchase them even considering the higher prices for them. Moreover, several recommendations for the Russian policy were done.