Joint Organic Congress in May 2006
In May 2006, researchers from nearly all EU-funded research projects in organic food and farming will join the same congress to present their results for organic producers and processors, as well as for those interested in an overall sustainable development in Europe.
The event takes place on 30 – 31 May 2006 in Odense (Denmark), and it will be held in collaboration with the biannual Danish Organic Congress. Together with the congress the Danish organizers are preparing an exhibition on technologies and products within organic food and farming.
As the official language will be English, the congress should be open for anyone interested in organic food and farming.
More information can be found on the congress homepage at www.organic-congress.org and in the press release (Word format) posted on the congress homepage.
Revision of organic rules and principles
IFOAM is currently in the process of revising the basic principles for organic farming. Four principles have been suggested to identify organic agriculture:
- The principle of health
- The ecological principle
- The principle of fairness
- The principle of care
The suggested new principles have been sent out to IFOAM members for consultation. Hereafter, they will be revised and at the next General Assembly (September 2005, Adelaide, Australia) the World Board will propose a motion on Principles.
Concurrently with the IFOAM process, the EU-project entitled Organic Revision and lead by DARCOF, is conducting research to provide recommendations for development of the EU regulation for organic agriculture.
The project will identify the basic ethical values of organic agriculture in cooperation with the above IFOAM process. Furthermore the project will identify value differences among organic farmers and other stakeholders in Europe and develop a procedure for balancing and integrating the basic values in revisions of the EU regulation. The project will also establish an organic standards database that enables comparison of national and international organic standards with the EU regulation, and analyse the exposed differences.
It is expected that these outcomes will help identify trade barriers, provide a better understanding of the ongoing development of organic agriculture and how it can be regulated, enable regionalisation of the organic production and support harmonisation as well as simplification of the EU regulation.
More information on both the IFOAM and the Organic Revision work can be found at EcoWiki, which also links to relevant project homepages.
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