Organic farming and sustainable rural development: A multifaceted and promising convergence

Over the past few years, convergence between organic farming and processes of rural development has been progressively acknowledged and organic practi ces and practitioners have been effectively involved in various rural devel opment projects. Nevertheless, organic farming's potential contribution to rural development processes has not been explored extensively in the specia lized literature. This paper illustrates the manifold synergies existing be tween organic farming and sustainable rural development, through a specific framework of analysis built on the implicit assumption that both modem, dy namic and multifaceted organic farming systems and rural economies are 'hyb rid and composite networks,' which can be analyzed according to an evolutio nary perspective and to the network analysis approach. The work identifies four main points of communality between organic farming and sustainable rur al development: innovation, conservation, participation and integration. Al l of them are critical aspects in current strategies for sustainable rural development, and, at the same time, key features of modern organic farming ideology and practices within an EU context.