GLOBALIZATION OF ORGANIC STANDARDS: REALLY?

ORGANIC STANDARDS GO GLOBAL

by Stephanie Callahan, Phys.Org, Publ.date Jun 24, 2014, Google Alerts, Jun. 29, 2014)

In the past, international trade of organic products between the U.S. and other countries has been difficult because of the wide variations in international organic standards and certification requirements. However, according to a June 22nd panel discussion at the 2014 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo in New Orleans, tremendous strides have been made in the development of organic trade agreements with other countries.

Currently, the U.S. has "equivalency agreements" with Canada, the European Union, and Japan. The agreement establishes that the countries involved agree that the objective of each other's organic regulations and control systems are equal. This means that products can be sold as "organic" in either market, without further certification or documentation; products may carry the organic seal of both countries; and accredited certifiers are mutually recognized. 

The USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, National Organic Program, and the Organic Trade Association (OTA) are in the process of negotiating trade agreements and resolving trade issues with several other countries, including Korea, Switzerland, India, China, and Latin America. 

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-06-standards-global.html#jCp

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-06-standards-global.html#jCp

Editor’s comment:

Apparently, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) - of which I had been a member during my early profesional years as M.S. in Food Tech - at last discovers the existence of organic foods. Congratulations! Better late than never!... 

Unfortunately, both the recognition of diferent organic standards and the IFT much praised path to reach it are things that have been dealt with and studied for many decades. Although not by the governments involved in the first bilateral agreements mentioned in the article. It was IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements) who has been aiming to a further generalization of the concept of equivalency that would avoid the long, cumbersome and costly bilateral agreements.  Equivalence is based on the recognition of the organic fundamental elements, minimizing the accessory details mostly due to local variations not affecting the principles that every organic individual considers unavoidable.    

It is unfortunate that the IFT, organization that is internationally recognized as a mainstay of food technology, after ignoring – and  even despising – organic foods for many years, when it recalls them forgets the intense work done in the development and the globalization of stadards with the purpose of deminishing and, if possible, eliminating commercial barriers in the trade of organic products. It’s only now, when the increase in the speed at which organic products are adopted by consumers in all corners of the world that they recall them, demonstrating complete ignorance of everything that has been done to facilitate trade. And it is also unfortunate that such ignorance leads to overlooking the insane tendency of the European Commission in their recent proposal to change the EU organic standards giving thus an incommensurate step backwards demanding identity instead of equivalence with its own regulations.

This Editor wonders: where will those praised bilateral agreements end up when the EU will begin demanding from all exporters not equivalency but identity with its own organic standards, including dots, periods and commas? 

Jorge Casale, IFOAM Organic Standards Requirements Committee