We are a
group of farmers who think that many certification-bodies leave the door
open to organic fraud. They rely on ‘confidence’ more than on
controle. Confidence may have been good enough for those farms who started
the organic movement, but now it proves to be insufficient.
As some
new countries are beginning to produce in massive amounts ( Brasil, China,
India, Thailand, Eastern Europe) it is essential that controls will become
effective, so that honest and well controlled farmers are not driven to
bankrupty by cheating farmers, and customers receive the quality that they
pay for.
It may
now happen that huge agricultural enterprises are controlled by certifying
bodies which they have created themselves (this is hard to prove, but we know it happened in Portugal. See: Portugal) . These local certifiers are in turn only
controlled once in every two years by IFOAM’s accreditation body IOAS. These IOAS people (almost) never visit a
field. As long as the products have no chemical residue, they can
succesfully be sold as organic.
We want this:
:
–
All production units (farms, packing stations) should be known to the
public ( internet) : the full adress, surface area and usual crops.
- Every production unit should be controlled unanounced at least once a year by an inspector.
NOTE: This website was first on the internet on feb 12 2006 and is not ready yet. It has changed everyday untill today febr.15. It will be improved after the Biofach.
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