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Brussels, 25 January 2002
Euro Coop reiterates its call
for the development of organic food and farming in Europe
Euro Coop is the European Community of Consumer Co-operatives, whose members are the national organisations of consumer co-operatives in 11 of the 15 Member States of the EU and in 4 Central and Eastern European countries. Created in 1957, Euro Coop today represents over 3,200 local or regional co-operatives, membership of which amounts to over 19 million consumers in the EU and 2 million in the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Euro Coop's major objectives have been to promote, defend and represent consumer interests at European level.
It is on the basis of this expertise that Euro Coop has prepared the following comments on organic farming.
In the context of the current debate on organic farming at the European level, Euro Coop wishes to reiterate its call for the development of organic food and farming in Europe. We would like to respond to the invitation from the Council of Ministers to share ideas on what further action should be taken to facilitate production, processing trade and consumption of organic products at the European Union level . Euro Coop is one of the signatures of the Copenhagen Declaration of 11 May 2001 calling for an European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming. In the following comments, we further expose our motivations and emphasize the recommendations enshrined in the Copenhagen Declaration.
Euro Coop believes that organic foods are one of the most crucial elements to respond to a growing consumer engagement in environmental and ethical issues. Organic foods, which are produced practically without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and without the use of preventive or growth promoting antibiotics for livestocks, consist of an important tool to move towards a better protection of the environment and an increased consumer safety.
Therefore, Euro Coop supports the idea that organic production should be considered as the spearhead for the development of a reliable sustainable agriculture. We believe it contains the potential to achieve several goals related to food safety and quality, environment, animal welfare and rural development.
Euro Coop also believes that a further development of organic food and production could be an efficient tool to change the perspective of the Common Agricultural Policy from the production of raw materials up to the consumption of food. We welcome the establishment of national councils for organic farming, such as in Denmark for example, which are essential to establish a dialogue amongst all actors of the food chain interested in the issue.
In the past ten years, there has been an annual average increase of 29% in organic holdings and 33% in organic farmland occurred . This development shows very clearly that the loss of consumer confidence in food and in the food chain has, among other things, led to the development of organic farming, and thus organic foods. A survey led in the United Kingdom demonstrates that consumers perceive organic foods to be better for the environment and feel that the government should be doing more to encourage its growth.
In order to respond to this consumers' demand, Euro Coop believes it is necessary to rapidly implement the Copenhagen Declaration on organic farming, which main recommendations are the following:
- To analyse the barriers to and potential for further growth within production and consumption of organic products in Europe;
- To present a consensus-oriented strategy to realise the potential and overcome the barriers;
- To involve and commit all stakeholders within Europe as a whole, including the European Commission, national governments, consumers, farmers, producers, retailers, NGO's, researchers and other important stakeholders;
- To cover all aspects concerning the development of organic food and farming in Europe, including areas such as environmental protection, animal welfare, consumer-behaviour, market-development, food-safety, food-quality, regulation, research and international trade;
- To analyse the relationship between, on the one hand the opportunities for the further development of organic food and farming and, on the other hand the Common Agricultural Policy.
Euro Coop also calls on the European Institutions to take into account the following measures when developing the European Action Plan on Organic Farming and Food:
- All actors of the food chain should be able to participate in all activities, standards developments, certification procedures, and certification bodies of organic foods. This is crucial for the continuous success of a healthy and credible organic sector. The responsibility of stakeholders indeed secures and creates trust and understanding for the standards and certification systems among consumers.
- There is a need for mutual recognition of standards, certification procedures and exchanging of documents, as a way to avoid fraud all over the Community and create confidence in the certification system. We strongly support the enacting of strict controls and labelling to safeguard consumer confidence in organic products, a vital factor in the continued growth of this sector.
However, Euro Coop members do not feel it is in the consumers' best interest to disallow national certification schemes and logos in the organic field. There is a close connection in the public mind between local and regional quality production on the one hand and organic production on the other. Hence the need for local, regional and national logos next to the EC-logo which is seen as a mean to accompany mutual recognition by giving the consumer an EC-wide guarantee and raising his level of information.
- It is the consumers' interest to have access to a wide range of organic products. IFOAM (International Federation of Agricultural Movements) Basic standards should therefore be recognized as the basic standard for organic production world-wide. The European Action Plan on Organic Food and Farming should evaluate the possibility for producers from all Third countries respecting these standards to export their organic products into the European Union.
- As an important step towards the implementation of a truly sustainable agriculture in Europe, the European Action Plan on Organic Food and Farming should analyse the opportunity of imposing organic sources for all livestock.
- In order to allow the consumer to choose completely GMO-free food, we also recommend the consideration of possible measures to be taken to avoid cross contamination between organic and GMO plantations.
- Finally, Euro Coop considers that it is important to involve the candidate States in the process of developing an Action Plan on Organic food and farming in order to pay attention to the experiences and needs of their organic farming sector.
Aude L'hirondel, Food Officer
Tel: +32.2.285.00.70 - Fax: +32.2.231.07.57 E-mail: info@eurocoop.org
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